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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the economic, ecological and public health effects on the UK of aquatic invasive species introduced by shipping discharging ballast water.

Defra has commissioned or undertaken a number of assessments that inform our understanding of the impacts of aquatic invasive species. These include, but are not limited to:

• Risk assessments for non-native species to understand the risk of arrival, establishment, spread and impact of such species.

• A study in 2010, ‘Economic Cost of Invasive Non-native Species to the British Economy’, which looked at the costs associated with aquatic invasive species, though it did not separately identify the cost of those introduced in ballast water;

• Work in 2012, modelling the risk of introduction and spread of non-native species in the UK and Ireland. This project identified areas, such as ports, which present greatest risk for the introduction, establishment and spread of such species, through pathways including ballast water; and

• A study in 2013 identifying those invasive non-native species most likely to arrive, establish and pose a threat to native biodiversity in Great Britain within the next 10 years.

Defra also supports a database, the Great Britain Non-native Species Information Portal. This provides information on more than 3,700 non-native species including where they are present and the likely means by which they have arrived in this country.