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 has taken in relation to the introduction of the US Marine Mammal Protection Act Import Provision Rule by that country.

Defra is working closely with Marine Scotland, the Marine Management Organisation, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Seafish, the University of St Andrews, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and the British Embassy in Washington DC on the UK’s approach to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Our aim is that the UK can continue to export to the United States when the MMPA is implemented on 1 January 2022.