Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of total percentage of the biodiversity for which the UK has global responsibility is located in the UK's Overseas Territories.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee, as the Government’s statutory nature advisor, does not have, nor is it aware of, an estimate of the total percentage of the biodiversity for which the UK has global responsibility and is located in the UK Overseas Territories. Of the total number of endemic species associated with the UK’s biodiversity, 94% reside in the Territories.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the paper entitled Marine Protected Areas network report (2019 to 2024), published on 18 December 2024, what steps he plans to take to protect designated features within the MPA network that are not in a favourable condition from (a) destructive forms of fishing and (b) other stressors.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are already protected from the point of designation by the planning and marine licensing regimes that cover activities such as dredging for aggregates and construction of offshore wind farms. Fishing activity falls outside the scope of these regimes, so fisheries regulators make detailed assessments of the impact of all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our MPAs and develop byelaws to restrict fishing when it has been assessed as damaging. Over 60% of England’s 181 MPAs have these byelaws in place.
As mentioned in my answer to PQ 17500, the Department is considering next steps for fisheries management in MPAs in the context of our domestic and international nature conservation obligations and how we support the fishing sector.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2025 to Question 17503 on Fishing Catches, what (a) criteria and (b) thresholds were applied in deciding which instances of non-compliance with the landing obligation merited enforcement through (i) verbal and (ii) written advice; and when the Marine Management Organisation expects to conclude decisions on remaining cases of non-compliance.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
In deciding how to manage instances of non-compliance, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) follows the principles of inform, educate, enforce in accordance with their published Compliance and Enforcement Strategy: Compliance and Enforcement Strategy - GOV.UK.
The threshold for evidencing non-compliance with the landing obligation is high, often requiring discarding to be observed/witnessed. Evidence can be drawn from a range of sources but must meet the required burden of proof for the sanction being applied.
The issuing of verbal or written advice depends on whether the inspection is conducted at sea or in port. Verbal advice is issued at sea in circumstances where relaying correspondence is more difficult and written advice is issued as a consequence of inspections in port.
The MMO aims to resolve straightforward investigations within 6 months. More complex cases may take longer.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what percentage of his Department's total biodiversity budget was spent on supporting biodiversity in the UK Overseas Territories in 2024-05.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
UK Government biodiversity spend is across multiple organisations and this funding contributes to other objectives, such as water quality, net zero and food security. As such it is not possible to provide an exact figure of total domestic expenditure on biodiversity.
For 2024-25, the department has committed to make available up to £10 million in direct support for biodiversity in the UK Overseas Territories. Future funding will be subject to the outcomes of spending review and business planning processes.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he will attend the UN Oceans Conference in June 2025.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), co-hosted by France and Costa Rica in June, will be at a critical time for the ocean and a stocktake of progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water.
The UK is supportive of an action-orientated UNOC and looks forward to the event. Defra are leading on the planning for UK attendance at the Conference and formal invitations from the co-hosts are expected to be shared soon after which Defra will confirm Ministerial attendance.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his priorities are for the 68th Global Environment Facility Council Meeting in relation to target (a) 5 and (b) 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The 68th Global Environment Facility Council meeting will discuss a programme of work to fund projects that will deliver environmental benefits, including contributing to achieving the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The UK’s priorities will be to support improved access to GEF finance for recipient countries.
The 3rd Council meeting for the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF) will discuss the programming of the GBFF in its first year of operation. The UK will reconfirm the additional pledge of £45 million to the GBFF made at CBD COP16.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2024 to Question 17501 on Fisheries: Monitoring, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it a mandatory requirement for vessels over 24 metres to have cameras onboard under the Remote Electronic Monitoring roll out.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Defra have already assessed which fisheries should have mandatory Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) and published the results in 2023.
The assessment concluded that over 24 metre pelagic trawlers in English waters should be a priority. Implementation began in summer 2024.
A further four fisheries were also identified as priorities. In those fisheries, REM will be mandatory for vessels over 10 metres.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2024 to Question 17500 on Marine Protected Areas: Fisheries, for what reason he was not able to provide a timescale.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department has not yet been able to provide a timescale for these measures due to the need to follow due process and consider how we can best meet the Government’s priorities. The Government recognises the need for action to protect and restore our marine environment, while supporting a sustainable fishing industry.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
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 (a) take steps to review the operation of the landing obligation and (b) publish the number of enforcement actions taken against vessels that have failed to comply with the landing obligation in the last three years.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only
a) Defra has been reviewing the operation of the landing obligation as part of wider reforms to discards management in England. In 2025, these reforms will include trialling changes to how we account for catches and the establishment of a discard reduction scheme to encourage more selective fishing practices.
b) In the last 3 years, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has recorded 32 instances of non-compliance with the landing obligation. Following the MMO Compliance and Enforcement Strategy, 23 instances were addressed by verbal advice, 2 were addressed by advisory letters and 3 were addressed by official written warning to master and owner. The remaining 4 are under investigation with decision pending. No instances have resulted in court action during this period.
Asked by: Barry Gardiner (Labour - Brent West)
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 make a an assessment of the effectiveness of the distribution of quota between (a) foreign and (b) domestic-owned trawlers under ten metres in the UK inshore fleet.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
The Secretary of State determination of fishing opportunities for British fishing boats sets UK fishing quotas. This quota is only allocated to British-registered and licensed vessels. These vessels must comply with the economic link licence condition. This requires a certain amount of fish to be landed into the UK or requires the employment of UK crew or other measures which ensure that the UK benefits economically from the quota.
In recent years, quota available to the under 10 metre fleet in England has significantly increased but remains underutilised. To boost catches by the non-sector, quota licence caps have temporarily been removed, and trials exploring different quota allocation methods have been introduced.