James Cartlidge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by James Cartlidge on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to improve the protection of areas of outstanding natural beauty in marine areas.

George Eustice

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty do not cover marine areas. However, this Government has made a commitment to complete a ‘Blue Belt’ of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) around our coasts. These sites will also contribute to an ecologically-coherent network of MPAs in the North East Atlantic.

Over 17% of UK waters and almost a third of English inshore waters are now within MPAs. This includes 50 Marine Conservation Zones created since 2013. We are continuing to work towards designating further MPAs to complete the ‘Blue Belt’.