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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their consultation on banning bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs), whether the 42 sites currently under consultation are in addition to the MPAs in which bottom trawling is already banned.

The proposed restrictions to bottom trawling in the consultation are in addition to those currently in place in the Marine Protected Areas. The level of protection from bottom trawling varies in each site, with some sites currently having no protection and others having partial bans. Full details of what is being proposed in each site can be found in the consultation document, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stage-3-consultation-document.