Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their timetable for ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty.

Answered by Lord Collins of Highbury - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Government is fully committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 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. Work is in hand on the measures needed to implement the detailed and complex provisions of the Agreement before we can ratify.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what further steps they are taking to improve biodiversity and nature inside the green belt.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This Government is committed to improving biodiversity across the country, including within the Green Belt. The Government’s intention is for Green Belts to provide multiple benefits, including nature recovery and increased public access to nature.

Local nature recovery strategies (LNRS) are being prepared across England. The LNRS statutory guidance states that if a responsible authority has Green Belt in their area, they should actively seek to target proposed actions for nature recovery inside it.

The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Defra are working together to improve planning policy following the consultation on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. This includes proposals for ‘golden rules’ for development in the Green Belt to deliver greener development which enhances nature and supports communities.

One of the Government’s key mechanisms to disincentivise harm to nature, including in the Green Belt, is biodiversity net gain, a new planning condition whereby habitats which are lost or degraded by development must be compensated for by enhancing or creating habitats that are of greater value to wildlife.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assurances they sought from the government of Mauritius during negotiations on the transfer of sovereignty of the Chagos Islands; and what commitments were made.

Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The agreement announced by the UK and Mauritius on 3 October concerning the exercise of sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory / Chagos Archipelago is subject to the finalisation of a treaty. Parliament will have the opportunity to scrutinise the detail of the Treaty prior to ratification, in the usual way.

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to maintain the ban on sandeel fishing in UK waters as part of their negotiations with the EU.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Both the UK and Scottish Governments closed English Waters of the North Sea and all Scottish Waters to fishing for sandeel in March 2024. The closure is in place to shield sandeel as an essential food source for threatened seabird populations, commercially valuable fish and for marine mammals. The EU has raised a dispute that the UK’s decision to prohibit fishing for sandeel within UK waters is not compliant with the Trade and Cooperation agreement (TCA). The dispute proceedings are confidential therefore there is little more I can say at this time.

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Found: LORD GASCOIGNE A1★_ Before Clause 1, insert the following new Clause— “Purpose: improvement