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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating a series of marine national parks to improve marine biodiversity.

While some countries designate marine parks, domestically, we have created a series of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) to protect our marine biodiversity. This is an extensive network of 178 sites covering 40% of English waters. Our MPA network represents the range of species and habitats found in our seas.

We continue to support local initiatives such as the proposed Marine Park in waters around Plymouth, and will consider the contribution of such projects to our environmental goals such as 30by30.

To complement the MPA network, the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in English waters were designated on 14 June 2023 and will come into force on 5 July 2023. HPMAs will provide the highest levels of protection in our seas, allowing nature to fully recover to a more natural state and helping the ecosystem to thrive.

Internationally, we are also leading global efforts to protect the ocean. We welcome the agreement of the Convention on Biological Diversity Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which sets out a clear mission: to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. As Ocean Co-Chair of the High Ambition Coalition for Nature & People, and our leadership of the Global Ocean Alliance, we continue to champion the GBF Target 3 to effectively conserve and manage at least 30% of the land and 30% of the ocean globally by 2030 (30by30), including the move to support implementation through facilitating knowledge-sharing and match-making financial and technical assistance.

The adoption of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement on 19 June will also lead to much greater protection for the two-thirds of the global ocean that lies beyond national jurisdiction, therefore playing a key role in achieving the 30by30 target the UK will work to ratify the Agreement as soon as practicable, whilst supporting others to do the same.

The UK’s Blue Planet Fund, a £500 million programme, supports developing countries to protect the marine environment and reduce poverty, by tackling threats to ocean health such as illegal fishing, pollution and climate change; and at the UN Ocean conference in 2022, we committed up to £100 million of Blue Planet Funding to support the implementation, management and enforcement of Marine Protected Areas.