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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many at-sea boarding inspections of (a) UK and (b) EU flagged fishing vessels took place outside of six nautical miles in each year between 2015 and 2025.

As fisheries control and enforcement is a devolved matter, each Devolved Administration is responsible for conducting inspections on vessels in their respective waters. Although the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) does not routinely publish specifics on inspections, the MMO annual reports which are published on gov.uk provide certain figures, for example during 2023/24 financial year, 37% of inspections at sea were conducted on non-UK vessels and 63% conducted within the UK domestic fleet. Information on the number of inspections carried out by Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish authorities in waters they are responsible for can be requested from the relevant devolved Government.