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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to protect marine life in the UK; and what steps the Government is taking with (a) counterparts in other countries and (b) representatives of marine life organisations to protect oceans around the world.

The UK is a global leader in protecting the seas, the ocean and our marine life, and works with counterparts in the UK and overseas to help achieve these aims.

Financed from the UK Official Development Assistance Budget, the Blue Planet Fund (BPF) will help eligible countries protect their marine resources from key human-generated stressors including plastic pollution, overfishing and habitat loss. The BPF will also embrace the ocean’s role in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

Our work also includes the creation of 355 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) protecting 25% of UK waters, including the recent designation of 41 new Marine Conservation Zones. On 8 June 2019 we announced a review into Highly Protected Marine Areas in English waters, which is due to report later this year.

Internationally, the UK has committed to continuing its leading role in global biodiversity conservation, including calling for at least 30 per cent of the ocean to be in MPAs by 2030 and negotiating hard to agree a global post-2020 framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity that is both ambitious and transformational. We strongly support a new Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction.

We are committed to protecting vulnerable marine species including through action to reduce bycatch in fisheries. We work through a number of multilateral environmental agreements, international bodies and regional Fisheries Management Organisations to strengthen international protection for vulnerable marine species.