Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department has taken to ratify the Global Oceans Treaty.

The Government is completely committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement, also known as the "High Seas Treaty" or "Global Ocean Treaty"), which is in line with our determination to reinvigorate the UK's wider international leadership on climate and nature. Legislation will be introduced by the end of the year to enable ratification of the Agreement.