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

To ask His Majesty's Government why the rollout of remote electronic monitoring of fishing (1) is voluntary, and (2) has been slow; and what consideration they have given (a) to making it mandatory, and (b) to expediting its implementation.

Our recent consultation on remote electronic monitoring (REM) in English waters proposed a phased approach to the expansion of REM. This would begin with volunteers in priority fisheries and then become mandatory for all vessels in those fisheries. In this consultation we also sought views on the timeline and other implementation issues. We are considering consultation responses and will publish a response in due course.