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 it his policy to issue a condition on all fishing licences to prevent vessels from using bottom-towed gear to fish within marine protected areas.

The designation and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) is a devolved competency and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

Nearly 60% of the 181 English MPAs are already protected from damaging fishing activity by byelaws including those announced on 31 January this year. Byelaws are preferred rather than licence conditions in MPAs because they can be introduced on a site-by-site basis to ensure that measures can be tailored to meet the conservation objectives of each site and without unnecessarily restricting fishing activity. Providing the fishing industry and other stakeholders with the opportunity to work closely with management authorities to shape these byelaws is crucial to their long-term success.