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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help protect seabirds from offshore energy infrastructure.

Offshore wind developers must show how they will avoid and mitigate impacts on protected seabirds, and provide compensatory measures where impacts remain. Within this context, the government is delivering the Offshore Wind Environmental Improvement Package to de-risk and accelerate offshore wind consenting whilst protecting marine habitats and species, including seabirds. The package includes developing environmental standards, establishing a Marine Recovery Fund to deliver compensation at a strategic level and a strategic, ecosystem- based monitoring framework to strengthen understanding of environmental impacts on vulnerable bird species.

We have also established a Seabird Conservation Coordination Group, comprising government, experts, environmental NGOs and industry representation. This group is helping to coordinate, monitor and drive delivery of actions for seabirds across our programmes of work in England. We are working with devolved governments on next steps, as they implement their respective seabird conservation strategies.