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.

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.