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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when his Department plans to publish guidance on the Marine Recovery Fund; and what his planned timeline is for the implementation of that fund.

As announced in the Clean Power Action Plan, we will establish an industry‑funded Marine Recovery Fund into which applicants can pay to discharge their compensation obligations, underpinned by a library of approved strategic compensation measures. This will be launched in late 2025. A consultation on the Marine Recovery Fund will be published this Spring.

The library of approved compensation measures for offshore wind projects in England is being developed by Defra in collaboration with stakeholders through the Collaboration in Offshore Wind Strategic Compensation programme (COWSC). COWSC brings together Government representatives, Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (SNCBs), environmental NGOs, offshore wind industry representatives, and Devolved Governments to work together in partnership. The focus of the programme is to propose sufficient measures to meet the Government’s offshore wind ambitions.

DESNZ estimates that delivery of strategic compensation through the Marine Recovery Fund will remove environmental barriers to up to 16GW of offshore wind.