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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 September 2024 to Question 4529 on Marine Protected Areas, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of bottom trawl fishing on his nature conservation objectives in marine protected areas.

Fisheries regulators make detailed assessments of the impact of all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our Marine Protected Areas 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 (publishing.service.gov.uk) and Dogger_Bank_SAC_Fisheries_Assessment.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).