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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has for implementation of the EU ban on fish discards; and what representations she has received on the sale or disposal of fish discarded before that ban comes into effect.

The UK secured a landing obligation as part of the reformed Common Fisheries Policy which entered into force on the 1 January 2014. The landing obligation comes into force in a phased timetable starting with pelagic fisheries on 1 January 2015 and extending to other fisheries from 2016.

Detailed preparatory work is underway with the fishing industry, European Union Member States and other stakeholders about how we can best implement these changes in practice. This includes supporting the industry in reducing discards ahead of the discard ban coming into effect, including through our successful catch quota scheme.