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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the catch limits provided for by UK fishing vessel licences take into consideration by-catch; and how that by-catch is monitored.

The catch limits on UK fishing licences are set to ensure the UK stays within the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for each stock as set out by the Secretary of State every year. The TACs account for by-catch and any obligation fishing vessels have to land this by-catch. In some cases, catch limits are set for by-catch only stocks and where this is the case it is clearly stated in the relevant fishing vessel licence.

By-catch is monitored in the same way as all stock uptake. This is through the mandatory recording of all catches and landings by fishing vessels and the mandatory recording of all sales made directly from fishing vessels.