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 an assessment of the potential merits of creating protected spaces in UK waters in which fishing is prohibited.

Marine protection is a devolved matter and the information below relates to England only.

Last year the Government commissioned an independent review (the Benyon Review) of whether Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) should be introduced into Secretary of State waters. The Government welcomes the report and recognises the potential role of HPMAs in securing our vision to leave the environment in a better state than which we found it. On 20^th July 2020 the Secretary of State gave a speech on environmental recovery and stated his intention to pilot HPMAs. The Government will soon be publishing its response to the Review.

Whilst the Government is considering HPMAs, we have an existing network of Marine Protected Areas already in place covering 40% of English waters. We are focused on ensuring that these sites are protected properly from fishing activity, with over 90 inshore sites protected from bottom towed fishing gear. Whilst our ability to manage fishing within our offshore sites was restricted under the Common Fisheries Policy, we aim to make rapid progress this year using a new byelaw power in the Fisheries Act 2020. The Marine Management Organisation will soon be consulting on byelaws to manage fishing within four offshore Marine Protected Areas.