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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will require restaurants and take-away food outlets selling meals described as fish to specify the species of fish the dish contains.

There are no plans to require restaurants and take-away food outlets to specify the fish species being offered for sale. However this information should be available to the owners or managers of these establishments, so they could let their customers know which fish they are buying if they are asked.

The general provisions of the Food Safety Act 1990, General Food Law Regulation 178/2002, and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 make it an offence to label or present food in a false or misleading way. A failure to adequately describe or label fish species in a food may constitute an offence under these rules.