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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve monitoring of the Marine Protected Area network.

Working with statutory nature conservation bodies, this Government is processing options to improve monitoring of the English Marine Protected Area (MPA) network including through use of modern technology. Defra secured increased funding in this year’s Spending Review to support expanded ecological surveys, non‑intrusive monitoring methods, and enhanced satellite‑based compliance monitoring. This will support enforcement and evidence to inform future management measures.

Defra and its arm’s‑length bodies are also investing, in innovative approaches such as automation, remote data collection and environmental DNA. This aims to support more cost‑effective and holistic assessment of environmental change and MPA effectiveness. Defra is jointly funding a pilot collaborative survey through the Centre for Seabed Mapping to generate high‑resolution data in priority MPAs, fill evidence gaps, and test scalable models for future UK marine monitoring and innovation.