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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she is taking steps to prevent Russian-owned vessels from fishing in the UK-Faroe Islands special area waters.

We were deeply concerned about Russian fishing activity under Faroese licences in the shared UK-Faroes Special Area last year and made this point very clear to the Faroese Government. We have formally requested urgent discussions with them on the issue, which we anticipate will take place in the coming weeks.