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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Marine Conservation Zones consultation published in June 2018, for what reason the consultation period was limited to six weeks; and when his Department plans to publish the results of that consultation.

The consultation on the third tranche of Marine Conservation Zones ran for a period of six weeks and closed on 20^th July. Six weeks was considered sufficient given that most of the sites consulted on had been in the public domain since 2011 and targeted stakeholder engagement had been carried out ahead of the consultation. We received over 48,500 responses during the consultation period.

We are carefully considering all of the responses received and the designations will be announced and in place by or before 7^th June 2019. At the same time we will also publish a full Government response to the consultation, outlining the evidence received and explaining the decisions taken on each site.