Oral Answers to Questions

Damian Collins Excerpts

Thursday 12th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Elizabeth Truss]

Currently, 50% of the dairy products consumed in Britain are imported. I want to see more British products produced and sold in this country. That is why I am pushing the European Commission for compulsory country of origin labelling to make sure that British consumers can go into supermarkets and find out which products are from Britain.

[Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con)]

2. What assessment she has made of the potential effect of a discard ban on the inshore fishing fleet.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (George Eustice)]

We recently launched a consultation on the implementation of the discard ban, which will help us to make that assessment. The consultation is being used to identify how to phase in the ban, how to allocate increases in quotas, where to introduce exemptions and how to manage the under-10 metre quota pool. The discard ban can provide significant benefits for all sectors of the fleet.

[Damian Collins]

Trawlermen in Folkestone, Hythe and Dungeness have raised with me their concerns about the lack of quota for the inshore fishing fleet and the potentially devastating impact of the discard ban. Will the Minister urgently consider making more quota available for the inshore fishing fleet and granting an exemption from the discard ban?