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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of banning bottom trawling in marine protected areas.

It is essential to manage bottom trawling in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) appropriately due to the significant damage it can have on protected seabed habitats. Fisheries regulators make detailed assessments of the impact of all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our MPAs and develop byelaws to restrict fishing when it has been assessed as damaging. These site-by-site assessments help to ensure fishing is not unduly restricted. Recent examples of these assessments can be found at Stage_2_MPA_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf and Dogger_Bank_SAC_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf.