Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 21
2nd Report - Governing the marine environment
Published 5 Jun 2025
Environmental Audit Committee Governing the marine environment All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) coordinate with The Crown Estate to ensure that offshore wind developments are developed away from the most sensitive and biologically diverse sites. This should be done by clearly setting out marine spatial areas (e.g. Marine Protected Areas and Highly Protected Marine Areas) where nature restoration is a priority, and habitats have long-term protection, so they are not compromised by future developments. (Recommendation, Paragraph 78)
From: Environmental Audit Committee, 2nd Report - Governing the marine environment (HC 551), 5 June 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 September 2025 (deadline 5 August 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government's response to the Committee's 16 recommendations is mixed: it agrees with some, partially agrees with many, and disagrees with others, giving reasons in each case.
- On a lead department for marine governance, it says it "partially agrees", stating that "it would not be appropriate to have one department making all the balancing and prioritisation decisions". Defra will publish a report on its 'marine systems map' work "by early 2026".
- It disagrees with updating the Marine Policy Statement within six months, saying an update "would be very resource intensive" and "would take much longer than six months". It points instead to a Sustainable Ocean Plan by 2027.
- On banning seabed damaging practices in offshore Marine Protected Areas, it partially agrees: it says "blanket bans are disproportionate and not in line with legislation" and restricts only fishing assessed as damaging to protected features. It disagrees with setting a specific target for Highly Protected Marine Areas.
- On the High Seas Treaty, it partially agrees, saying it "has committed to introduce the legislation by the end of the year", which is needed to implement the agreement ahead of ratification.