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 potential economic benefits of an ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas in UK waters.

The Impact Assessment for the designation of the first tranche of Marine Conservation Zones assessed the economic benefits of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Marine Protected Areas are expected to result in increases in ecosystem services including provisioning (i.e. increased fish numbers), regulating (i.e. climate regulation), cultural and recreational services. Overall, networks are likely to have additional benefits, such as an increase in biological resilience to adapt to changed conditions. While it is not possible to fully monetise the economic benefits of MPAs the Government is continually reviewing and developing the evidence base in this area with a wide range of interested parties.