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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of (a) UK-flagged and (b) EU member state-flagged fishing vessels were subject to port inspections in the last 12 months.

As of 1 June, there are 4,656 licensed UK fishing vessels. Any of these vessels could be subject to inspection by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) or by an Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority if they come into a port within our administration. MMO is the administrator for all English ports. During the last 12 months the MMO undertook 1,836 in-port inspections. It is not possible to readily identify how many individual vessels were inspected. The majority of these would have been English- registered vessels.

1,545 EU vessels are licensed to fish in UK waters, although the majority do not land their catch to an English port. In the last 12 months, there were 44 landings by EU vessels at English ports of which five were subject to inspection. The inspections were of three individual vessels.