Written questions by Gardiner.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2025 to Question 22880 on the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, whether his Department has drafted the secondary legislation required in advance of ratification for the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

The Government is completely committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), which is in line with our determination to reinvigorate the UK's wider international leadership on climate and nature. Work is in hand on the measures needed to implement the detailed and complex provisions of the Agreement before the UK can ratify. Legislation to implement the BBNJ Agreement will be introduced as soon as the legislative timetable allows.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the objectives set out in the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs' speech entitled The Kew Lecture: Foreign Secretary's speech on the climate crisis, published on 17 September 2024, if he will make an assessment of the contribution of the Darwin Plus Programme to the UK Overseas Territories.

In 2020, Defra commissioned an independent review of the Darwin Plus programme. This found Darwin Plus projects to have a strong, positive impact on the capacity of the Territories to deliver long-term strategic outcomes for the natural environment, which enhances protection of biodiversity ecosystems. During his Kew Lecture on 17 September 2024, the Foreign Secretary declared reversing the decline in global biodiversity as a Government priority. It is estimated that the UK Overseas Territories are home to over 90% of known endemic British species. Information on individual projects funded under Darwin Plus is available on the programme website (https://darwinplus.org.uk/). The programme’s performance is reviewed annually and published on the UK Government’s online Development Tracker.

Food and Rural Affairs, what percentage of his Department's total biodiversity budget was spent on supporting biodiversity in the UK Overseas Territories in 2024-05.

UK Government biodiversity spend is across multiple organisations and this funding contributes to other objectives, such as water quality, net zero and food security. As such it is not possible to provide an exact figure of total domestic expenditure on biodiversity. For 2024-25, the department has committed to make available up to £10 million in direct support for biodiversity in the UK Overseas Territories. Future funding will be subject to the outcomes of spending review and business planning processes.

Food and Rural Affairs, what was the total funding allocated to projects by Darwin Plus in each financial year since 2019-20.

Total funding allocated to Darwin Plus projects in each financial year since 2019-20 is provided in the table below. YearTotal funding taken up by Darwin Plus projects 2019-2020£3.81m2020-2021£4.55m2021-2022£6.65m2022-2023£8.50m2023-2024£10.12m2024-2025£8.96m

Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of total percentage of the biodiversity for which the UK has global responsibility is located in the UK's Overseas Territories.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee, as the Government’s statutory nature advisor, does not have, nor is it aware of, an estimate of the total percentage of the biodiversity for which the UK has global responsibility and is located in the UK Overseas Territories. Of the total number of endemic species associated with the UK’s biodiversity, 94% reside in the Territories.

Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the future of the Darwin Plus programme.

In November 2024, Minister Doughty and Minister McCarthy met with the elected leaders and representatives of the Overseas Territories at the UK Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council. The UK Government confirmed that it would continue to work in partnership with the Territories to support the protection of their unique environments and to help address biodiversity loss.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether he will attend the UN Oceans Conference in June 2025.

The third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), co-hosted by France and Costa Rica in June, will be at a critical time for the ocean and a stocktake of progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. The UK is supportive of an action-orientated UNOC and looks forward to the event. Defra are leading on the planning for UK attendance at the Conference and formal invitations from the co-hosts are expected to be shared soon after which Defra will confirm Ministerial attendance.

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2025 to Question 17503 on Fishing Catches, what (a) criteria and (b) thresholds were applied in deciding which instances of non-compliance with the landing obligation merited enforcement through (i) verbal and (ii) written advice; and when the Marine Management Organisation expects to conclude decisions on remaining cases of non-compliance.

This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only. In deciding how to manage instances of non-compliance, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) follows the principles of inform, educate, enforce in accordance with their published Compliance and Enforcement Strategy: Compliance and Enforcement Strategy - GOV.UK. The threshold for evidencing non-compliance with the landing obligation is high, often requiring discarding to be observed/witnessed. Evidence can be drawn from a range of sources but must meet the required burden of proof for the sanction being applied. The issuing of verbal or written advice depends on whether the inspection is conducted at sea or in port. Verbal advice is issued at sea in circumstances where relaying correspondence is more difficult and written advice is issued as a consequence of inspections in port. The MMO aims to resolve straightforward investigations within 6 months. More complex cases may take longer.

Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the paper entitled Marine Protected Areas network report (2019 to 2024), published on 18 December 2024, what steps he plans to take to protect designated features within the MPA network that are not in a favourable condition from (a) destructive forms of fishing and (b) other stressors.

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are already protected from the point of designation by the planning and marine licensing regimes that cover activities such as dredging for aggregates and construction of offshore wind farms. Fishing activity falls outside the scope of these regimes, so fisheries regulators make detailed assessments of the impact of all fishing activities on the protected species and habitats in our MPAs and develop byelaws to restrict fishing when it has been assessed as damaging. Over 60% of England’s 181 MPAs have these byelaws in place. As mentioned in my answer to PQ 17500, the Department is considering next steps for fisheries management in MPAs in the context of our domestic and international nature conservation obligations and how we support the fishing sector.

Food and Rural Affairs, what his priorities are for the 68th Global Environment Facility Council Meeting in relation to target (a) 5 and (b) 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

The 68th Global Environment Facility Council meeting will discuss a programme of work to fund projects that will deliver environmental benefits, including contributing to achieving the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The UK’s priorities will...

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2024 to Question 17501 on Fisheries: Monitoring, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it a mandatory requirement for ve

Defra have already assessed which fisheries should have mandatory Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) and published the results in 2023. The assessment concluded that over 24 metre pelagic trawlers in English waters should be a priority. Implementation beg...

Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2024 to Question 17500 on Marine Protected Areas: Fisheries, for what reason he was not able to provide a timescale.

The Department has not yet been able to provide a timescale for these measures due to the need to follow due process and consider how we can best meet the Government’s priorities. The Government recognises the need for action to protect and restore our ma...

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make a an assessment of the effectiveness of the distribution of quota between (a) foreign and (b) domestic-owned trawlers under ten metres in the UK inshore fleet.

The Secretary of State determination of fishing opportunities for British fishing boats sets UK fishing quotas. This quota is only allocated to British-registered and licensed vessels. These vessels must comply with the economic link licence condition. Th...

Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish measures for the remaining offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) under stage (a) 3 and (b) 4 of the Marine Management Organisation's offshore MPA process.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Rotherham, on 16 September 2024, PQ 4529: It is essential to manage bottom trawling in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) appropriately due to the significant damage it can have on protect...

Food and Rural Affairs, how many vessels are taking part in the early adopter phase of the remote electronic monitoring rollout by having cameras installed; and what steps he is taking to increase the number

There is one early adopter vessel volunteering to take part in the first fishery, over-24 metre pelagic trawlers in all English waters. Further vessels will be recruited for implementation in other fisheries.

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the opening positions for each Total Allowable Catch in the (a) EU/UK bilateral and (b) EU/UK/Norway trilateral negotiations.

Due to the nature of the negotiations, it is not appropriate to publicly disclose negotiating documents detailing the UK’s opening positions. Our bilateral negotiations with the EU and our trilateral negotiations with the EU and Norway have both concluded...

Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) take steps to review the operation of the landing obligation and (b) publish the number of enforcement actions taken against vessels that have failed to comply with the

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only a) Defra has been reviewing the operation of the landing obligation as part of wider reforms to discards management in England. In 2025, these reforms will include tr...