Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of current protocols to account for (a) fishing catches and (b) fishing vessel activities.

Seafood sold in the UK is subject to traceability requirements to ensure fish and fisheries products can be tracked from the final point of sale back to its point of origin and included in catch figures. These traceability requirements include rules on recording catches, sales, purchases and labelling of fish that is landed in the UK and placed on the market.

Seafood traceability and fishing vessel activity information is further strengthened by vessel monitoring systems which are now required on all English fishing vessels and all fishing vessels of any nationality over 12 metres in length fishing in English waters. These devices track a vessel’s location, speed and heading in real time, providing evidence about vessel activity and where seafood is being caught, providing enforcement agencies a view of fishing.