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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled UK leads global efforts to help communities save the ocean and beat poverty, published on 26 January 2026, if she will set out how her Department evaluates whether Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature Grants Programme-funded projects are inclusive of (a) marginalised and (b) indigenous communities.

The OCEAN Grants Programme has been designed to ensure that Gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) is at its heart. OCEAN's approach goes beyond gender equality alone to include disability and wider social inclusion, explicitly covering marginalised groups and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). All applications are assessed for social inclusivity by an external Expert Committee and GEDSI specialist and must ensure equitable access, active participation, and appropriate roles in decision-making, with safeguards to prevent intentional or unintentional harm.

Projects are monitored and evaluated during delivery to track progress and embed learning. In Round Two, 54% of successful projects explicitly target IPLCs and/or other ethnic or religious minority groups and 100% of successful projects are expected to work with marginalised communities.