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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a maximum price for bass landed as allowable by catch which is linked to the price on the dock of pollock with that price calculated over the average price paid for pollock over the immediate three-month period; and if she will make a statement.

The Government believes that the setting of prices in the fishing sector is a commercial matter to be resolved by private negotiation which should take place within the parameters set by competition law. The market must determine prices. Sea bass catches are being restricted through ongoing fisheries measures agreed at EU level to address the currently reduced biomass and rebuild the stock. This is a Government priority to support both recreational and commercial interests in this important stock. Overall, EU levels of catch are successfully reducing.

For 2017, a small bass catch for fixed nets at 80% less than this year was agreed at EU level – representing an estimated 88% reduction of all UK netting bass catches from the 2011-13 baseline figure. Overall, in 2017, UK bass commercial catches are estimated to be reduced by 60% from the former baseline average.