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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made in implementing the EU discard ban.

The landing obligation will come into force in January 2015 for pelagic fisheries, and for other fisheries beginning in 2016. Much progress has been made on implementation.

The UK has now agreed discard plans for pelagic fisheries with other Member States in both the North Sea and North West Waters, and these were recently submitted to the European Commission. Work is also underway with the fishing industry and others on the demersal landing obligation, with a consultation to be launched early in 2015.