David Amess – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Amess on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to put in place a blue belt to protect marine habitats and species.

George Eustice

Since 2013, we have designated 50 Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs), which protect a range of habitats and species. A third tranche of MCZs will be designated in 2018.

We are currently undertaking work to identify a complete network of Special Protection Areas for seabirds, and consulting on five Special Areas of Conservation for harbour porpoise.

Over 17% of UK waters and almost a third of English inshore waters are now within Marine Protected Areas.