Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to raise levels of protection for the Antarctic Ocean.

The UK continues to support the establishment of Marine Protected Areas within the area covered by the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (which is part of the Antarctic Treaty system). The UK led the proposal to establish a Marine Protected Area around the South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf which was agreed in 2009; and strongly supported the designation of the Ross Sea Region Marine Protected Area in 2016. The UK supports, and is fully engaged in, developing proposals for Marine Protected Areas in the Weddell Sea, East Antarctic and the Antarctic Peninsula regions of the Southern Ocean.