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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the cumulative days of fishing by vessels carrying (a) bottom trawls, (b) dredges and (c) other bottom-towed gear in the UK’s 63 offshore benthic MPAs in 2023.

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

Estimates of fishing effort in offshore MPAs are made as part of the Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) work to assess and manage the impacts of fishing in all English offshore MPAs. These estimates have been published in economic and fisheries assessments on GOV.UK alongside byelaws for the first two stages of the MMO’s four stage programme to manage fishing activity in all English offshore MPAs. MMO is currently undertaking further analysis covering 43 offshore MPAs which will be published in due course, alongside consultations on any proposed byelaws.