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

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the fishing industry during the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government fully understands the importance of EU and global export markets for the UK’s fishing and seafood industry, in particular the shellfish sector. We are actively monitoring the impacts of Covid-19 and related control measures with significant input from industry stakeholders.

We are urgently considering measures to help mitigate the impact of the current situation on all sectors of the seafood and fisheries sectors.

The Chancellor has announced a substantial package of measures to help UK businesses and the self-employed sector. These measures, which include the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme are available to the fisheries and aquaculture sector throughout the UK.