Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement.

The Government is completely committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) which is in line with our determination to reinvigorate the UK's wider international leadership on climate and nature. Legislation will be introduced by the end of the year to enable ratification of the BBNJ Agreement. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has worked with the Commonwealth Secretariat to support smaller member countries with their implementation work, and the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs has published research to develop a shortlist of potential Area-Based Management Tools, including Marine Protected Areas that could be proposed once the Agreement is in force.