Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted in Part
Call on Government to ban seabed damaging practices within offshore Marine Protected Areas
Recommendation
We call on the Government to ban seabed damaging practices, such as bottom trawling, dredging and mining for aggregates, within offshore Marine Protected Area boundaries. (Recommendation, Paragraph 62)
Government Response Summary
The government partially agrees, stating it already has byelaws in 60% of MPAs and commenced consultation to ban bottom trawling in an additional 41 MPAs. However, it rejects whole-site bans, instead opting for targeted restrictions based on specific features, and manages other activities through licensing.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
This Government is taking action to ensure activities do not damage our MPAs. The Government is committed to the global target to effectively protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, and to delivering this target at home, alongside our responsibilities under domestic and international law to manage our MPAs. In England, there are 181 MPAs covering approximately 40% of our seas, protecting important, rare and threatened habitats and species. Around 60% of these MPAs already have byelaws in place to prevent damage from fishing activity. In addition, in June 2025, the MMO commenced a consultation on proposals to ban bottom trawling in a further 41 MPAs, covering 30,000 km2, equivalent to 13% of England’s waters. The Government’s policy is not to introduce whole-site bans on bottom-towed fishing gear in MPAs. Our approach is to only restrict fishing which is assessed as damaging to the specific protected features in each MPA, based on advice from the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies (Natural England and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee). Sometimes management measures will involve a ban across the whole site, where the features to be protected cover the whole site, and in other cases they will not. For marine industries such as aggregate dredging, activities that could impact MPAs are managed through the marine licensing and planning consent systems. As part of this process, applications for activities in MPAs are subject to a Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) or Marine Conservation Zone (MCZ) Assessment to ensure potential impacts on MPAs are properly assessed, avoided or mitigated. Activities that damage MPA features can only be approved if they pass the HRA or MCZ derogations tests. The Government therefore partially agrees with this recommendation. Defra is working to ensure damaging practices do not occur within our MPAs where they could harm protected habitats and species, but blanket bans are disproportionate and not in line with legislation.