North Sea and West of Scotland Haddock has been scored a moderate risk. This is because the sparwning stock biomass is above precautionary reference levels, though fishing mortality is above that required to achieve MSY. Recruitment in recent years has also been below the long-term average.

The management of the North Sea haddock has been scored a moderate risk. The stock is assessed annually by ICES, and has been recently benchmarked with a re-evaluation of the reference points. However, there is some uncertainty as to the effect of the implementation of the Landings Obligation will have on control and accounting for catches because there is a risk of continued undocumented discarding.

The bycatch risk of this fishery has been scored a moderate risk. This is because the fishery has potential to take and discard at risk stocks such as West of Scotland and North Sea cod.  A range of measures and/or incentives are in place to manage the fisheries, these measures, where adopted, will act to improve the selectivity of the fishery for some other species taken in the same fisheries depending on size and behaviour.

The habitat risk of this fishery is scored as a high risk because otter trawls are considered to have the potential to cause significant adverse effects especially to deeper water habitats. This is because, although otter trawls are considered to have the potential to cause significant adverse impacts, , However, the risk of impact is to some extent mitigated by the fact that the ‘core’ otter trawl fisheries are spatially well defined and there has been a significant reduction in effort in this fishery over recent decades.

Spatial management measures have been implemented by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations to reduce potential impacts to deep water vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) and habitats through the establishment of bottom fishery closures. However, not all deep water VME has been identified and protected through closures so it is likely that some sensitive seabed habitats remain at risk of bottom trawling impacts.