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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential environmental effects of the disturbance of deep-sea carbon stores through deep-sea mining.

Defra is investigating the environmental effects of deep-sea mining through the Deep-sea Mining Cross Government Working Group, which includes Cefas, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The working group is supported by input from the National Oceanography Centre, Natural History Museum and British Geological Survey. The group intends to cover the effects of the disturbance of deep sea carbon stores in its forthcoming meetings.