Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 19
19
Accepted in Part
Marine Protected Areas' status must be maintained, not compromised by offshore energy development.
Conclusion
Nature recovery and restoration is a long-term process. It is of utmost importance that sites dedicated for marine protection maintain their status to allow habitats and ecosystems to recover and be effectively protected. 52 Whilst the expansion of offshore renewable energy development, like offshore wind farms, are critical for net zero ambitions, the need to protect nature is also essential and should not be compromised by targets for renewable energy. (Conclusion, Paragraph 76)
Government response summary AI-generated
Defra recognizes the role that maintaining effective MPAs plays in conservation goals, and around 40% of waters are already designated as MPAs. The government disagrees with setting a specific target for HPMAs in Secretary of State waters but commits to designating new or extending existing MPAs to compensate for offshore wind development.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
The Government therefore partially agrees with this recommendation. It is crucial for Defra to work closely with DESNZ and TCE. As previously noted, the Government has provided a strategic steer to TCE on the key risks and considerations related to potential future offshore wind development in the English sea. This guidance supports TCE in identifying suitable areas for future offshore wind leasing, helping to avoid the most environmentally sensitive areas including MPAs and HPMAs in those potentially suitable areas or mitigations where relevant. MSPri also helped to identify areas critical to other marine sectors and Government priorities. The outputs of this process will be incorporated into TCE’s Marine Delivery Routemap which aims to help plan all marine sectors and nature in an integrated way. This strategic steer is a result of a new, in-depth. and data-driven cross-government exercise, in which departments (supported by regulators and advisory bodies) assessed their policy priorities across the English marine space.
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