MPs have urged the Government to ban damaging activities such as
bottom trawling in certain protected areas of England's waters,
in a report published today.
In the report, the cross-party House of Commons Environmental
Audit Committee calls on the Government to ban activities that
damage the seabed, such as bottom trawling, dredging and mining
in offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The Committee warns of
the Government's “failure to effectively manage gaps in the
network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)”, which it says is
allowing these damaging activities to take place in protected
areas.
Minister for Water told the Committee that the
Government was “committed to not having bottom trawling in areas
that damage the MPAs, especially when they are attached to
features that we are trying to protect”. But the Government has
so far not set out a timeline for taking further action to
protect MPAs from the practice.
To protect important marine habitats, the Government has in
recent years established 178 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
covering nearly 900,000 square kilometres of English waters.
However, these areas are multi-use, meaning that activities that
damage the environment can take place if they do not directly
impact the specified protected features.
Damaging and extractive activities are completely banned only in
Highly Protected Marine Areas, of which the UK has just three.
The Committee recommends the Government expand this network to
10% of UK waters by 2030 to meet biodiversity targets, based on
evidence of their effectiveness in marine nature recovery. It
says the plan to designate more HMPAs should be published in a
report by January 2026.
The Committee also raises concerns about the UK's Marine Policy
Statement, which guides planning decisions for the UK's seas.
Last published in 2011, with an update after the UK's withdrawal
from the EU, the Committee says the Marine Policy Statement is
“outdated, not fit for purpose and no longer reflects Government
policy or pressures on the marine environment.”
The Committee recommends Ministers issue a revised Statement no
later than January 2026, and that it clearly sets out the
Government's priorities for marine usage and how it will make
decisions on balancing marine exploitation with protection.
MPs also raise concerns in the report about the UK's failure to
ratify the UN's High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect marine
life in the high seas by establishing protected areas in
international waters. The UK has signed the treaty but so far
failed to ratify it, nor has the Government published a timeline
to introduce to Parliament the primary legislation required to
ratify the Treaty. Until the Treaty is ratified by 60 countries,
it will not come into force.
In the report, MPs say they are “concerned the protection of the
ocean is not demonstrably a priority for the Government” and urge
the Government to set a clear timeline for introducing the
required legislation. To send a “clear signal” that the UK is
prioritising marine protection, the Committee says the treaty
should be ratified no later than September 2025, two years after
the UK originally signed it.
Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, MP. said:
“UK waters are teeming with complex ecosystems that are not only
precious in their own right but also critical to sustaining the
delicate balance of marine life. Ministers must ensure that
marine protected areas live up to their name.
Activities with the potential to seriously damage marine
environments, such as bottom trawling, risk slipping through the
regulatory net. While such activities do not need to be banned
everywhere, in areas where marine life is most at threat we need
to take more advanced action.
Ministers have all the information they need to press ahead with
banning bottom trawling in the offshore protected areas where it
presents the most risk. Why the delay? Our oceans cannot afford
any more prevarication. It is time to act. Doing so would send a
clear signal ahead of this month's UN Oceans Conference that the
UK is serious about protecting valuable ecosystems in our waters.
So too would bringing forward a long overdue update to the UK's
Marine Policy Statement, to outline how the Government will
balance exploiting our marine resources with protecting them, and
setting out a timeline for ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty,
taking us one step closer to real protection for marine life in
the high seas.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The full list of conclusions and
recommendations can be found on page 49 of the report.
