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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to include (a) blue carbon habitats and (b) seabed sediments as designated features within existing Marine Protected Areas as part of the upcoming Marine Protected Area network review.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) protect a variety of habitats as designated features, including those that play a role in carbon capture and storage, such as maerl beds, saltmarsh and seagrass meadows. The MPA network review aims to identify approaches to improve climate change resilience across designated sites in English seas, including those protecting carbon-storing seabed sediments (e.g. sublittoral mud in North East of Farnes Deep Marine Conservation Zone).