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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the UK’s role in protecting hitherto undiscovered marine species.

The UK Government plays a key role domestically and internationally to restore nature and halt global extinctions, both on land and in our ocean, through which we are delivering a range of activities which will contribute to the protection of known and currently undiscovered marine species.

The UK was at the forefront of efforts to agree the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (“GBF”) at the UN Biodiversity Summit in December 2022. As leader of the Global Ocean Alliance, and Ocean co-chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, the UK helped deliver this landmark global deal for nature, with ambitious commitments relating to the protection, restoration, sustainable use and management of biodiversity, including the targets to halt human-induced extinctions of known threatened species and to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030 (30by30). Our Blue Belt programme now protects over 4.3 million square km of ocean around our overseas territories, and is an integral part of the UK’s contribution to the 30by30 target. We also continue to help developing countries around the world to protect their marine environments to the benefit of people and livelihoods through our £500m Blue Planet Fund, that aims to address climate change and biodiversity loss, support sustainable fisheries and tackle marine pollution.

At home, the UK published an Environmental Improvement Plan in 2023, which sets out how we will deliver on the 25 Year Environment Plan. In English waters, we have established a comprehensive network of 178 marine protected areas covering 40% of English waters to help deliver the 30by30 commitment for the ocean, and we are now focusing on making sure they are protected properly. We have also committed to improve the Red List Index for England for species extinction by 2042 compared to 2022 levels.