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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to strengthen enforcement capacity in UK territorial waters.

As fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter, each Devolved Administration is responsible for enforcement capacity in their waters. Defra is committed to maintaining a robust and adaptive enforcement system to protect English waters from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, and works closely with the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities, and other organisations to make sure the appropriate arrangements to enforce fisheries regulations are in place to protect our waters.

Additionally, Defra and the MMO work actively with the Joint Maritime Security Centre (JMSC) to utilise available maritime surveillance and enforcement resources for fisheries enforcement in partnership with the Ministry of Defence and other relevant departments and agencies including from the Devolved Administrations.

Although there is no direct metric for assessing compliance of fishing vessels with the vessel monitoring systems mentioned, overall performance is monitored through annual reports required under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. These reports, published online, at the GOV.UK and individual IFCA websites such as Eastern IFCA, highlight each body's contributions, successes and challenges in a wide variety of areas including enforcement.