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

To ask His Majesty's Government what are their contingency plans in the event that insufficient numbers of fishing vessels volunteer to adopt remote electronic monitoring.

Our current expectation is that we will have sufficient volunteers to expand the use of remote electronic monitoring (REM) in 2024. In our recent consultation on REM in English waters, we proposed the establishment of steering groups. Among other things, these would enable us to develop our approach with stakeholders across relevant fisheries. This could include looking at alternatives if sufficient volunteers were not forthcoming.