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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to promote sustainable fishing.

We recently published our Marine Strategy Part One assessment on the health and resilience of our marine ecosystems, including progress towards achieving our objective of good environmental status in UK waters.

As an independent coastal state, we are committed to working closely with our partners including the EU, Norway and Faroe Islands to manage shared stocks sustainably and share fishing opportunities on a fair and scientific basis. The UK Government’s ambition is to set a gold standard for fisheries management to achieve sustainable fisheries safeguarding stocks and the environment for the long-term. At front and centre of the Fisheries Act is the set of fisheries objectives which will be followed by detailed policies in the Joint Fisheries Statement to deliver sustainable fishing.

Underpinning this new framework is our commitment to sustainability – supporting future generations of fishermen while allowing our marine environment to thrive. It enshrines in law the Government’s manifesto commitments for sustainable fishing, restating our commitment to Maximum Sustainable Yield by including the ‘Sustainability Objective’ and ‘Precautionary Objective’ to achieve MSY. Furthermore, the Act contains a ‘Bycatch Objective’ seeking to reduce the wasteful practice of discarding fish; an ‘Ecosystem Objective’ to minimise and, where possible, eliminate negative impacts on marine ecosystems; and a new ‘Climate Change Objective’ which recognises and combats the impact of fishing on the health of our oceans and our planet. The Fisheries Act further adds powers to improve the protection of the wider marine environment around the UK and to enable the Marine Management Organisation to support marine improvement around the world.