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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish information on the (a) known and (b) potential areas within the UK's exclusive economic zone of sensitive or vulnerable deep-sea habitats for (i) coldwater corals, (ii) deep-sea sponges, (iii) mud and sand emergent epifauna, (iv) bryozoan patches and (v) xenophyophore patches.

Information on the extent, or area covered, and distribution of marine habitats is currently publicly available in different formats.

Created by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) in 2018, UKSeaMap provides a broad-scale overview of the coverage of different physical seabed habitats in the UK. In addition to this, the JNCC’s UK Marine Protected Area mapper portal provides up to date detailed information on the known distribution and extent of sensitive deep-sea habitat types such as deep-sea sponge aggregations and cold-water corals, and also provides information on their protection status. Through the Canyons Marine Conservation Zone, located in the far south-west of the UK, Defra is protecting the only known example of cold-water corals within English waters, so action is being taken. All other instances of cold-water corals in the UK are recorded from Scottish waters such as the Rosemary Bank Seamount, East & North West Rockall Bank, Anton Dhorn Seamount and Darwin Mounds.

We are also currently in the process of mapping and analysing data on the condition of biogenic reefs, hard structures made up of living organisms, and underwater rocky communities, specifically looking at those habitats with sensitive emerging epifauna, such as corals and sponges. The results are not yet publicly available, although we are in the process of finalising the report for external publication.