Marine Protected Areas: Waste Disposal
(asked on 25th February 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to prohibit the disposal of waste in marine protected areas.
Answered by
Baroness Hayman of Ullock
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We have a comprehensive network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) covering 40% of English waters and a statutory MPA target under the Environment Act 2021 to ensure they are in a good and healthy state. All MPAs are protected from the dumping of waste at sea and marine litter by the planning and marine licensing regimes.
The UK’s marine licensing regimes comply with the obligations of international conventions that the UK is party to, including the London Convention and Protocol and the OSPAR Convention which prohibit the dumping of waste at sea with very limited exceptions.
The UK is also a signatory to the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL). MARPOL Annex V controls the discharge of garbage from ships and is brought into UK law through the Merchant Shipping Regulations on the Prevention of Pollution by Garbage from Ships (2020). These regulations prohibit the discharge of garbage at sea with very limited exceptions.