§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and 583W Food what are his estimates for the most recently available year of the proportion of their catch taken by France, Germany, Holland, Denmark and Belgium within (a) the British 200-mile and (b) the British 50-mile fishing limits, and the proportion of British catches made outside those two limits.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithI regret that the information is not available in the form requested. The most recent year for which information was supplied to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea in sufficient detail to permit an estimate to be made, but for the 200-mile belt only, was 1976. In that year the proportions were as follows:
Country Estimated proportion of total 1976 catch taken within United Kingdom 200-mile belt (percentage) France 40 West Germany 12 Netherlands 29 Denmark 38 Belgium 42 The proportion of the total United Kingdom catch taken outside the United Kingdom 200-mile limit in 1976 was 33 per cent.