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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support active restoration of coastal ecosystems; and if he will take steps to amend the licensing framework for that restoration.

The Government recognises that protecting, restoring, and sustainably managing coastal and marine habitats – such as saltmarsh, seagrass and native oyster reefs – can provide biodiversity, climate adaptation and climate mitigation benefits.

Defra has funded restoration of coastal ecosystems through schemes such as the Water Environment Improvement Fund and the Environmental Land Management Countryside Stewardship scheme. Defra is also funding the development of a Saltmarsh Code to enable saltmarsh carbon to be traded as a carbon offset and help drive private finance towards nature restoration.

The Environment Agency’s Restoring Meadow, Marsh and Reef initiative is working to restore seagrass meadows, saltmarsh and native oyster reefs. It is working in partnership with environmental non-government organisations, industry, community groups, and academia to identify innovative funding opportunities, streamline regulatory processes, build capacity and share knowledge with partners to facilitate a larger programme of restoration.

Defra officials are working with arms-length bodies to understand whether improvements could be made to the marine licensing regime to ensure that it appropriately enables habitat restoration.