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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to mitigate disturbance of blue carbon stores on the seabed by requiring marine developers to align with the Greenhouse Gas Assessment process.

There are no current plans to require the inclusion of seabed carbon disturbance in marine developers' Greenhouse Gas Assessment processes. A recent Cefas study highlights that further research is needed to understand the release of carbon from seabed stores resulting from human activities. Defra is funding research through the Blue Carbon Evidence Partnership to improve understanding of UK seabed sediment carbon storage and sequestration, impacts of human activities, and management interventions.

England's marine plans contain policies supporting the conservation, restoration and enhancement of habitats providing carbon sequestration ecosystem services. Two of England's three Highly Protected Marine Areas, Allonby Bay and North East of Farnes Deep, contain blue carbon habitats, including seabed carbon.