Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to monitor Marine Protected Areas for illegal fishing and other proscribed maritime activities.

The Government's commitment to establish a Blue Belt of marine protection around the Overseas Territories is on track to deliver 4 million square kilometres of marine protection by 2020. In delivering the Blue Belt initiative, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the Marine Management Organisation are helping to ensure that the large scale Marine Protected Areas which have been designated, or are being developed, around the UK Overseas Territories are effectively managed, monitored and enforced. Traditional surveillance techniques, including sea and aerial patrols, are also being supplemented with trials of new techniques including satellite surveillance (radar and optical imagery); autonomous underwater vehicles; and unmanned aerial systems, to detect any illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.