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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many UK Marine Protected Areas her Department expects will meet their conservation goals.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a devolved competency and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

Our aim is that all our MPAs will meet their conservation goals. On 16^th December, we announced a set of legally binding targets for the environment. This includes one for MPAs, which is for 70% of protected features in MPAs to be in favourable condition by 2042, with the remainder in a recovering condition. To help achieve this, the Marine Management Organisation has an ambitious programme to introduce bylaws to restrict the most damaging fishing activity, like bottom trawling.

We know that if we stop damaging activities and manage our sites properly then protected features will begin to recover.