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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government plans to seek to prohibit (a) non-UK-registered and (b) non-UK-owned fishing vessels from fishing within (i) UK territorial waters and (ii) the UK fisheries limits after the UK's exit from the EU.

Exit from the EU presents us with an opportunity under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to improve the way in which waters within the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone are managed. Defra officials will be working with the new Department for Exiting the European Union, Devolved Administrations and stakeholders to develop proposals that will allow the UK to best take advantage of this opportunity.