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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department adopted the features-based approach for the assessment method for the stage 3 Marine Protected Area byelaws.

The Marine Management Organisation uses a feature-based approach for developing fisheries management measures in England’s Marine Protected Areas, including the proposed stage 3 byelaws. Sometimes these management measures will involve restrictions across the whole of a site, where the features to be protected cover the whole site.