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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with the International Maritime Organisation on (a) disposal and (b) recycling of spoil waste from the dredging of harbours.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) provides the secretariat for the London Protocol, to which the UK is party.

Under this global instrument (and the OSPAR Convention) that aims to protect the marine environment from pollution caused by dumping at sea, the UK has agreed guidelines on the management of dredged materials and the encouragement of its re-use and recycling. Moreover, we provide data on the disposal of dredged materials to the IMO (and the OSPAR Convention).