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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Department is taking towards a ban on bottom trawling in inshore waters.

Our comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), now covering 40% of English waters, and over 50% of inshore waters, restrict bottom trawling in sensitive areas.

Not all MPAs require restrictions on bottom trawling for example some mobile species features such as seabirds. Of the 159 MPAs in English inshore waters, most are already protected by some form of byelaw regulating the use of bottom towed gear. Monitoring and control plans are in place for all inshore MPAs.