Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of 25 April 2024 by the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Official Report, column 387WH, what steps his Department is taking to ratify the Global Ocean Treaty in time for the UN Ocean Conference in June 2025.

Ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement) is in line with this Government's determination to reinvigorate the UK's wider international leadership on climate and nature, and we are fully committed to doing so. Legislation to implement the BBNJ Agreement to allow ratification will be introduced as soon as the legislative timetable allows.