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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman of Ullock on 1 August 2025 (HL9721), what was the outcome of Resource Futures' research on the number of vessels reaching end-of-life and the policy options to reduce marine litter from abandoned vessels; and what steps they intend to take in response.

The Resource Futures’ research commissioned by Defra assessed the scale of the problem of marine litter from abandoned vessels and policy options to reduce this. The report concluded that, whilst it is clear that recreational vessel abandonment is set to become an increasingly large problem, data gaps make it difficult to assess accurately the number of abandoned or end-of-life vessels across the OSPAR Maritime Area and in the UK. The report is available here: Marine litter from end of life recreational vessels - ME5247) (see attached).

Drawing on this research, the UK has led work with other countries in the North-East Atlantic as part of the OSPAR Convention to develop best practice guidance on the prevention, reporting, and management of end-of-life recreational vessels. The guidance was adopted by the OSPAR Commission in June and has been published on the OSPAR website here (see attached).