Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has received from the Ascension Island Council on the proposed creation of a marine protected area around Ascension.

The Ascension Island Council wrote to Minister Duddridge at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in May about the proposed creation of a marine protected area around Ascension. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office are giving consideration to all options for marine management around Ascension Island. Any decision will be based on scientific justification, financial viability, effective enforcement and monitoring. The Government committed in its 2015 manifesto to, “designate a further protected area at Ascension Island, subject to the views of the local community.”