To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the (a) estimated weight of the fish submitted on the catch recording app or (b) weight of those fish shown on sales notes, in circumstances where (a) and (b) differ, will be used to determine quota take-up and catch limits.

The catch recording system is currently in its roll out phase. As the system enters full usage and fishers get used to the system, the data gathered from it will be used to cross check data from sales notes. For at least the current quota management year catch records will be used to supplement but not replace sales note data in tracking uptake and setting limits.

As the catch records capture a complete record of landings, any species or landing undeclared on a sales note will be taken from the catch record. Where sales notes and catch records both capture a species and/or a landing but differ in the recorded quantity then the Marine Management Organisation will give due consideration to the reason for the difference when making a decision on which value to use.