Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect of a cessation of drift net salmon fishing in 2018 on heritage fishing in North Shields.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The North East coast net fishery, including drift nets at North Shields, operates as a coastal mixed stock fishery, catching salmon from a large number of different populations from rivers in both Scotland and England on the eastern coast of Britain.
The UK Government has international obligations as a member of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation (NASCO) to close coastal mixed stock fisheries as it is not possible to manage them in such a way as to effectively protect contributing salmon stocks. Closing fisheries is not an action that is taken without careful consideration. In reaching this position the Environment Agency (EA) has followed the NASCO guidelines and applied the Precautionary Approach to the conservation and management of salmon populations, giving priority to conserving and protecting salmon stocks.
The EA understands that these new management measures could impose a financial burden on licensed drift netsmen. It has not taken the decision to propose measures lightly, but salmon are in decline across the country. On the grounds of ensuring stocks exist at a sustainable level now and in the future, these are the measures that are being proposed.
The EA intends to formally advertise its proposals later this month and all stakeholders will have the opportunity to respond to the proposed byelaws and to request changes or modifications.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of water utility companies that use (a) off-shore financial arrangements and (b) tax havens.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
According to data compiled by Ofwat, the following regulated water companies have offshore finance structures registered in the Cayman Islands: Affinity Water, South East Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, Welsh Water and Yorkshire Water.
All of these offshore finance structures are UK resident for tax purposes.
Thames Water and Yorkshire Water have both recently announced their intention to close their offshore finance structures.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many water companies missed their leakage targets in (a) 2015, (b) 2016 and (c) 2017.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
No companies missed their leakage targets for the financial years 2014/15 and 2015/16. Six companies missed their leakage targets in 2016/17. These were:
Water company | Performance commitment (Million litres per day) | Actual performance (Million litres per day) |
Bristol Water | 47 | 47.4 |
Essex and Suffolk Water | 66.00 | 68.08 |
Portsmouth Water | 29.95 | 30.37 |
Sutton and East Surrey Water | 24.30 | 24.34 |
Cambridge Water | 13.5 | 14.32 |
Thames Water | 630 | 677 |
The reported level of performance is based on Ofwat’s 2014 Price Review (PR14) methodology.
Leakage figures for all the water companies in England and Wales are available at Discover Water https://discoverwater.co.uk/leaking-pipes.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the cessation of all drift net salmon fishing in 2018 on salmon stocks.
Answered by Thérèse Coffey
The 2014 assessment of salmon stocks showed the lowest population levels in our rivers nationally on record. In response to this ongoing decline, the Environment Agency has proposed new measures to reduce the exploitation of salmon by net fisheries.
It is estimated that these measures affecting the drift net fisheries would enable 16,000 more salmon and sea trout to return to our rivers to spawn annually, providing opportunity for future recovery of the species.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 December 2017, HCWS386, if he will publish a list of the 44 stocks of interest to the UK for which Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)assessments have been made; and which 30 of those 44 stocks of interest to the UK will be fished at or below MSY in 2018.
Answered by George Eustice
Further to my written statement of 21 December 2017, the final agreement means that 31 stocks of interest to the UK will be fished at or below their maximum sustainable yield (MSY) rate in 2018. This is out of 45 such stocks of interest for which MSY assessments have been completed by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). A list of stocks is set out below.
Stocks of interest to the UK that have a MSY assessment and will be fished at their MSY rate in 2018.
Blue ling: Union and international waters of Vb, VI, VII |
Blue whiting: Norwegian waters of II and IV |
Cod VII b,c,e-k, VIII, IX, X, Cecaf 34.1.1(EC) |
Cod VIIa |
Cod: IV; Union waters of IIa; that part of IIIa not covered by the Skagerrak and Kattegat |
Cod: VIId |
Common sole VIId |
Common sole VIIe |
Common sole: Union waters of IIa and IV |
Haddock EC waters of Vb and VIa |
Haddock VIIa |
Haddock: IV; Union waters of IIa |
Haddock: Union and international waters of VIb, XII and XIV |
Hake EC waters of IIa and IV |
Hake VI and VII; EC waters of Vb, international waters of XII and XIV |
Herring VIIa |
Herring VIIg,h,j,k |
Herring: By-catches in IV, VIId and in Union waters of IIa |
Herring: IVc and VIId |
Herring: Union and Norwegian waters north of IV north of 53o30'N |
Horse mackerel and associated by-catches: Union waters of IIa, IVa, VI, VIIa-c, VIIe-k, VIIIabde; Union and international waters of Vb; international waters of XII and XIV |
Megrim EC waters of IIa and IV |
Norway lobster (Nephrops) VI; EC waters of Vb |
Norway lobster (Nephrops) VII |
Picked dogfish EC and international waters of I, V, VI, VII, VIII, XII and XIV |
Plaice VIIa |
Plaice VIId,e |
Saithe: IIIa and IV; Union waters of IIa, IIIb, IIIc and Subdivisions 22-32 |
Saithe: VI; Union and international waters of Vb, XII and XIV |
Roundnose grenadier Vb, VI and VII |
North Sea sprat |
Stocks of interest to the UK that have a MSY assessment and will not be fished at their MSY rate in 2018.
Blue whiting: Union and international waters of I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIIIa, VIIIb, VIIId, VIIIe, XII and XIV |
Cod VIa; EC waters of Vb |
Common sole VIIa |
Common sole VIIfg |
Haddock VII b-k, VIII, IX, X, EC waters of Cecaf 34.1.1 |
Herring: Union and international waters of Vb, VIb and VIaN |
Mackerel: NE Atlantic |
Megrim VII |
Norway lobster (Nephrops) EC waters of IIa, IV |
Plaice: IV; Union waters of IIa; that part of IIIa not covered by the Skagerrak and the Kattegat |
Whiting VI; EC waters of Vb; international waters of XII and XIV |
Whiting VIIa |
Whiting VIIbcdefhk |
Whiting: IV; Union waters of IIa |
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Written Statement of 21 December 2017, HCWS386, what scientific evidence informed the decision to set total allowable catches for anglerfish and pollack in the Celtic Sea.
Answered by George Eustice
Both anglerfish and pollack in the Celtic Sea are Data Limited Stocks. However, scientific advice published by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) was used to inform the decision to rollover the total allowable catch (TAC) for Area 7 anglerfish and Area 7 pollack in 2018.
In the case of Area 7 anglerfish, advice was issued in 2016 for quotas in 2017 and 2018 and therefore the TAC for 2018 remained the same as in 2017.
For Area 7 pollack, ICES issued advice in 2017 for quotas in 2018, 2019 and 2020, however the advised tonnage is unchanged from the previous advice and therefore the TAC for 2018 remained the same as for 2017.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to bring forward proposals to support smaller scale fleets in the UK by allocating fishing rights according to social and ecological criteria; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by George Eustice
We have taken measures in recent years to improve the economic viability of the inshore fleet by awarding uplift quota to support the landing obligation, permanently realigning quota from Producer Organisations to the inshore fleet. We have also addressed latent capacity through a capping exercise to provide greater certainty to those actively fishing in the inshore fleet. We will continue to review our allocation policy to promote sustainable fishing.