Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Government plans to create an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary.

The UK is an active member of the Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) and is committed to establishing a representative network of marine protected areas around Antarctica. The UK led the proposal for the South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf Marine Protected Area, which was the first MPA agreed by CCAMLR in 2009. The UK also strongly supported the designation of the Ross Sea region MPA, agreed in 2016. The UK is a co-proponent of the proposals to establish MPAs in the Weddell Sea and East Antarctica, and will be strongly advocating their adoption at the 37th CCAMLR meeting in October 2018.