English Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling and Dredging

Baroness Boycott Excerpts

Thursday 19th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome the noble Baroness’s welcome of the announcement; it is an important step forward in a long-term plan properly to protect our marine ecosystems and environment while enabling fishing. We have had to very carefully considered the next steps to manage bottom trawling in MPAs, along with other fishing methods, in the context of our domestic and international nature conservation obligations. It is important that we get this right and the proposed by-laws are very substantial: they will close 13% of English waters to bottom trawling, which will be critical to protect our MPAs. We want to move at pace, but I will not set out a precise timeline because it is important that we see the consultation through first.

[Baroness Boycott (CB)]

My Lords, I wonder if the Minister could help me clarify something. I have a cutting from Fishing News, “the voice of the fishing industry”. When Minister Zeichner addressed the Shellfish Association last week, he said that this news about the ending of bottom trawling will be “very, very grim” for the industry. He knows how frustrating it is, he said, and:

“This is about ending trawling in areas where damage is done – why make changes in areas of MPAs that aren’t at risk?”—


which would apply to the 42 new ones that have not yet been bottom trawled. It seems to me very concerning, and I would be very grateful if the Minister could lay out the Government’s precise position on this.

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government support the fishing industry and recognise its key role in food supply, which is why we are also launching the fishing and coastal growth fund, which is investing £360 million over the next 12 years to support the next generation of fishermen and breathe new life into our coastal communities. This investment will make the fishing industry fit for the 21st century, but we make no apology for taking the steps—which, indeed, were initiated by the previous Government—to protect our natural marine environment over the long term. It is worth pointing out that the majority of fishing fleets that will be impacted by this ban on bottom trawling and shellfish dredging are not UK fleets but fleets from other nations, principally France, Ireland and Denmark.