Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment she has made of the performance of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in its regulation of the UK fishing fleet.

The performance of the MCA is assessed on a number of levels through internal and external auditing functions. With regards to the UK fishing fleet the MCA continues to work with the sector to improve the safety of fishers, since the introduction of the Fishing Industry Safety Strategy in 2017 fatalities have reduced from 6.8 per year in the five years prior to 2017 to 4.2 per year in the last five years. We will always strive to do all we can to drive this number down further.