Every parliamentary written question tabled by Pippa Heylings this session, with the full answer and department. Back to the MP page.
Showing 41–60 of 106 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to bring forward legislation to formalise the license variation requiring English fishing vessels under 12m to operate iVMS while at sea.
A Statutory Instrument is scheduled to be laid once the Marine Management Organisation's rollout of IVMS has concluded.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to ensure that fishing catches are recorded and accounted for.
To ensure fishing catches are accurately recorded and accounted for, all English vessels must record their catches either in a logbook or, for vessels under 10 metres, using the Catch Recording application. These systems provide an accurate picture of how much fish is being taken from English waters. Compliance with this requirement is monitored through analysis of data and vessel inspections. Fisheries control and enforcement are devolved matters, with each Devolved Administration responsible for conducting inspections within its respective waters.
Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 29 October 2025 to question 83891, if she will publish details of grants to the fishing and seafood sector from 2025, including details of vessels receiving funding and the nature of on-board improvements.
Defra is committed to ensuring transparency on the use of public funds. In England, details of grant awards to the fishing and seafood sector are already published on Gov.uk. Publications are updated regularly and made in line with legal obligations, including data protection and commercial confidentiality. As we are in the process of awarding grants for Fisheries and Seafood Scheme for 2025, these awards will be published in due course.
Food and Rural Affairs, what percentage of developments BNG would apply to should small sites be excluded as proposed in the Improving the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain for minor, medium and brownfield development consultation.
A Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation will be published in due course. The Government will also publish a full impact assessment setting out all relevant costs and benefits.
Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 October to Question 84396, what percentage of the fishing catch quota has been distributed through (a) Fixed Quota Allocation Units, (b) the Quota Application Mechanism and (c) other routes for the most recent year for which data is available.
In 2025, the percentage of quota distributed through fixed quota allocation units was around 90% (‘existing quota’ and ‘additional quota’), 5% of English allocated quota was distributed via the Quota Application Mechanism and 5% via alternative routes. In 2026, the percentage splits will change because the Quota Application Mechanism is increasing from 5 stocks to 14 stocks, for that reason fixed quota allocation will need adjusting accordingly and can only take place once we have concluded negotiations for access to fishing opportunities in December.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of how many jobs in the ecology and nature sectors could be lost as a result of small sites being excluded from BNG as proposed in the Improving the implementation of Biodiversity Net Gain for minor, medium and brownfield development consultation.
A Government response to the ‘Improving biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development’ consultation will be published in due course. The Government will also publish a full impact assessment setting out all relevant costs and benefits.
Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 29 October 2025 to question 83898, what incentives there are for volunteer participants in the design and test phase for demersal trawls using mesh sizes up to 120mm, over 10m; and how many vessels in that category have volunteered for 2026.
All vessels taking part in REM early adopter projects have the opportunity to shape Defra’s approach to roll out, participating in programme design and flagging implementation issues. Volunteers can also recommend information and data they would like us to collect and how they would like it reported back. Defra also funds REM equipment and installation for volunteer early adopters. At present there are no volunteers for Fishery C, Demersal trawls using mesh sizes up to 120mm, over 10m, English waters of the North Sea.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether all catches are recorded and accounted for in UK fisheries.
To ensure fishing catches are accurately recorded and accounted for, all English vessels must record their catches either in a logbook or, for vessels under 10 metres, using the Catch Recording application. These systems provide an accurate picture of how much fish is being taken from English waters. Compliance with this requirement is monitored through analysis of data and vessel inspections. Fisheries control and enforcement are devolved matters, with each Devolved Administration responsible for conducting inspections within its respective waters.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that small producers are not placed at a cash flow disadvantage compared with larger producers under the payment structures of the extended producer responsibility scheme.
pEPR in the UK has some of the most generous support measures for small businesses across any packaging scheme globally. These are exemptions from disposal fee and recycling obligations for producers with an annual turnover below £2 million and packaging tonnage below 50 tonnes; and an exemption from data collection and reporting obligations for small businesses with turnover below £1 million and packaging tonnage below 25 tonnes. These exemptions apply to approximately 70% of businesses supplying packaging in the UK. To support businesses that are subject to disposal fee obligations we have also provided flexible payment arrangements to help obligated businesses manage cashflow, by paying fees in quarterly instalments. Where producers are a liable and struggle to meet payment plans outlined in the regulations, further options are available on request.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the fixed quota allocation system for distributing the catch quotas.
The Fixed Quota Allocation (FQA) system was introduced in 1999 and is only one of the ways in which quota is allocated. While the UK Government does not routinely conduct formal assessments of the FQA system itself, it continually monitors fish stocks based on the latest scientific advice. In addition to the FQA system, quota is also distributed through the Quota Application Mechanism trial in England supporting our commitment to the Fisheries Act objectives.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure Fisheries Management Plans deliver sustainable fisheries management.
In line with the UK Fisheries Act 2020 Defra is committed to managing our fisheries sustainably. Defra has published the first set of Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) and are on course to publish the next five by the end of 2025, with a further four to be published by the end of 2026. The plans are evidence based, collaboratively developed, and set out measures to maintain or restore stocks to sustainable levels. Implementation is underway, with critical actions already taken such as an increase in minimum conservation reference size (MCRS) for crawfish to protect the juveniles of these stocks from being landed before they have matured. Plans will be kept under review to ensure they remain effective.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department has taken to tackle known limitations of fisheries stock assessments since 2020; and whether she plans to allocate additional funding to help improve data collection in fisheries.
The Department has invested significantly in research and development with an aim to improve fisheries stock assessments since 2020. Additionally, the Department has run a Fisheries and Science Partnership scheme, which provided grant funding to fishing industry and academia partnerships to undertake fishery science projects. Fisheries Management Plans published by the Department include the identification and delivery of evidence to support known gaps. This financial year alone the Department has invested £2.5 million in filling these evidence gaps. The Department is also reforming the fisheries data collection programme to ensure its fit for purpose and further help to address these evidence gaps.
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with fisheries authorities on the effectiveness of the steps they are taking to tackle (a) illegal, (b) unreported and (c) unregulated fishing in UK waters.
Whilst it is for each of the Devolved Administrations to assess how best to control its waters, Defra, the Scottish Government, Welsh Government, and Northern Ireland Executive work closely together. This cooperation includes discussions and review of appropriate policies and regulations at a UK level as well as regularly sharing and reviewing intelligence to deliver a robust approach to monitoring, compliance and enforcement across our waters to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to provide resources to implementation groups responsible for the delivery of Fisheries Management Plans.
Defra is committed to working collaboratively with stakeholders in delivering Fisheries Management Plans (FMP). Defra resources and manages a number of FMP implementation groups, and funds Seafish to convene and support two further implementation groups. Defra and the Marine Management Organisation also organise ad hoc stakeholder meetings to further delivery as required.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help meet the National Benefit objective of the Fisheries Act 2020.
The UK requires that vessels fishing against UK quota demonstrate a tangible economic contribution to the UK. This is primarily achieved through the economic link licence condition, embedded in fishing licences. As part of the Quota Application Mechanism trial in England, we score applicants based on environmental commitments but also on delivered social and economic benefits. We have begun independently evaluating new fishing opportunities to ensure they are realising the social and economic benefits intended. For instance, two recent reports show that bluefin tuna fisheries provide multiple social and economic benefits for coastal communities. To ensure social and economic benefits in the national interest can be assessed, we have inaugurated a new Fishing Industry Social Survey to complement the existing economic fleet Survey. Over 400 fishermen responded this year, and results of the survey will be published in the near future.
Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with the devolved Administrations on protocols for mandatory Remote Electronic Monitoring for vessels fishing in UK territorial waters.
Defra has regular discussions with the devolved administrations on the design of Remote Electronic Monitoring protocols. We will continue to work with our colleagues around the UK to discuss our policies where it is right to do so.
Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the percentage of UK fixed quota allocation units that are held by non-UK entities.
The Fixed Quota Allocation (FQA) Register is an online resource listing UK fishing vessel licences, the associated FQA units, and their respective owners. You can access the register at: www.fqaregister.service.gov.uk. The UK’s fishing quota is currently distributed based on FQA units and linked to UK vessel licences. These units can only be assigned to vessels that are both registered and licensed in the UK.
Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that fishing quotas are distributed in ways that incentivise (a) lower impact and (b) selective fishing.
There are a number of mechanisms in place to incentivise lower impact and selective fishing. In terms of quota distribution, in England we have been running a trial since 2024 called the Quota Application Mechanism, which allocates quota based on environmental, social and economic criteria. As part of this, with the support of scientists, we have developed a gear ranking system to incentivise selective fishing.
Food and Rural Affairs, if she plans to introduce mandatory Remote Electronic Monitoring for (a) over 24m pelagics vessles, (b) over 10m demersal seine vessels and (c) over 10m demersal trawls.
Defra is working to implement Remote Electronic Monitoring in five priority fisheries. They are:- Pelagic trawls, over 24m, all English waters- Demersal seines, over 10m, English waters of the Southern North Sea and English Channel- Demersal trawls using mesh sizes up to 120mm, over 10m, English waters of the North Sea- Fixed and drift nets (gill and trammel), over 10m, English waters of the Celtic Sea and English Channel- Demersal trawls including beam trawls, over 10m, English waters of the Celtic Sea and English Channel We are working first with volunteers to design and test systems and will then move to mandatory implementation.
Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of current protocols to account for (a) fishing catches and (b) fishing vessel activities.
Seafood sold in the UK is subject to traceability requirements to ensure fish and fisheries products can be tracked from the final point of sale back to its point of origin and included in catch figures. These traceability requirements include rules on recording catches, sales, purchases and labelling of fish that is landed in the UK and placed on the market. Seafood traceability and fishing vessel activity information is further strengthened by vessel monitoring systems which are now required on all English fishing vessels and all fishing vessels of any nationality over 12 metres in length fishing in English waters. These devices track a vessel’s location, speed and heading in real time, providing evidence about vessel activity and where seafood is being caught, providing enforcement agencies a view of fishing.