Question to the Wales Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the Welsh fishing industry on the effect of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on their ability to operate.

I have regular discussions with stakeholders, including those from the seafood sector on maximising opportunities from the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement.

Having left the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, Welsh fishermen and women will be in a position to rebuild our fishing fleet and increase quotas in the coming years. That is why on 24 March, we announced how the additional quota secured as a result of leaving the EU would be shared between the four UK administrations this year. This approach was agreed with the Welsh Government and delivers uplifts for the Welsh industry in sole, plaice and other important stocks.

We recognised the disruption caused to seafood exporters by delays at the border in the early part of this year. To address this, we launched the £23m package of support to deliver the Seafood Disruption Scheme and Seafood Response Fund. This is designed to help UK fishing and shellfish aquaculture businesses that have been affected by the downturn of export and domestic markets for fish and shellfish due to the coronavirus pandemic and/or disruption to seafood exports earlier this year