Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress he has made on securing access for Falkland Islands fisheries to the EU single market.

The UK Government is fully committed to supporting the Overseas Territories, and we will continue to do all we can to protect their interests. During negotiations of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, we made clear to the EU from the outset that we were negotiating on behalf of the Overseas Territories. However, the European Commission refused to negotiate a future relationship that included the Overseas Territories.

We sought to change the Commission's position, but it declined to engage. As a result, tariffs now apply on exports from the Overseas Territories to the EU, particularly exports from the Falkland Islands. We are working with the Falkland Islands Government to agree the appropriate actions to mitigate against the impact of tariffs on their exports to the EU.