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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to publish Bycatch Action Plans for seabirds, cetaceans, seals, elasmobranches and protected fish species.

Defra are developing a Seabird Bycatch Action Plan for England in collaboration with stakeholders including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the fishing industry and academic researchers. The plan will set out steps to address seabird bycatch, along with assessing the evidence available and what further evidence is needed.

Plans are complex and require significant time and investment to ensure they are evidence-based and deliverable. The Seabird Bycatch Action Plan will provide a valuable template for the approach to further action plans.