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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to page 27 the 2018 White Paper on Sustainable Fisheries for Future Generations, what steps he has taken in response to the scientific trial of an effort system for fishing in English inshore waters.

In the 2018 Fisheries White Paper Defra stated that we would consider a targeted scientific trial using an effort (days at sea) based regime in place of a quota regime for some low impact inshore fisheries.

In summer 2019, Defra ran a call for evidence on developing a new approach for allocating additional fishing quota in England. This included a question on trialling effort for some low impact fisheries, to determine whether fishing can be carried out sustainably under an effort based regime.

For 2020, we will continue to work with industry and other stakeholders to develop our approach for allocating and managing any additional quota in England. This includes whether we should trial an effort based approach. We plan to consult on this later this year.