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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to include in the Joint Fisheries Statement a date by which (1) the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and (2) the other devolved administrations, will publish a plan to roll out Remote Electronic Monitoring.

The draft Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) has been developed jointly with the Devolved Administrations and is a significant step forward in our ambitions to ensure a vibrant, modern and resilient fishing industry and a healthy marine environment.

The draft commits the fisheries policy authorities to a wide-ranging and coordinated monitoring programme to underpin their approach to fisheries management. This includes a commitment to explore, where appropriate, the use of technologies such as vessel monitoring systems and Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) for both their scientific purposes, and to aid the sustainable management and control of fisheries.

The public consultation on the JFS is open until 12 April. We will consider responses to that public consultation and any parliamentary scrutiny prior to the publication of the finalised JFS in November. In the meantime, Marine Scotland published a consultation on the use of REM on 16 March.