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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what quantity of fish and fish products was (1) imported from, and (2) exported to, (a) the EU, and (b) elsewhere, in 2016; and what tonnages of quotas have been sold by the UK fishing industry to fishermen based in other EU member states to allow them to fish within UK waters.

In 2016, the UK imported 252,000 tonnes of fish and fish preparations (excluding products such as oils, meals and flours) from EU member states (worth £1,044 million), and exported 324,000 tonnes of fish to EU member states (worth £1,165 million).

The UK imported 479,000 tonnes of fish and fish preparations (excluding products such as oils, meals and flours) from the rest of the world, including the EFTA countries (worth £2,029 million) and exported 117,000 tonnes (worth £475 million).

Further details on the UK’s trade in fish products can be found in the Marine Management Organisation’s UK Sea Fisheries Statistics 2016 at GOV.UK.

Sales of fish quotas allocated to member states are not permitted either between national governments or the fishing industries. However, quota can be exchanged for quota from another member state through international quota swaps. While these can be initiated by the fishing industries themselves, they are approved and enacted by the fishery administrations within each member state. In 2016, a total of 42077.9 tonnes of UK fishing quota was swapped out to other member states in exchange for 51321.3 tonnes of fishing quota coming in to the UK.

UK quota is linked to the vessels it is allocated to. Some UK registered vessels are foreign-owned. All UK registered vessels, including foreign-owned vessels, which catch quota stocks must meet “economic link” requirements. The aim of these is to make sure that the UK gains genuine economic benefits from UK quota. They require, for example, most of a vessel’s landings to be in the UK, most crew members to be UK resident or for other benefits to accrue to UK coastal communities.