Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the oral contribution by the further to the remarks of the Minister for Europe and the Americas on 20 February 2018, Official Report, column 13, how many sq km of sea around the UK Overseas Territories are subject to marine protection.

Currently there are over 3 million km2 of protected ocean around the UK Overseas Territories of the British Indian Ocean Territory, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, Pitcairn, St Helena, and within British Antarctic Territory and Ascension Island waters.

The Government, working with Territory Governments, is on course to deliver 4 million km2 of protected ocean by 2020.