Speeches by Hardy.

“The conversations I tend to have with Minister Shanks are more about how we can ensure the best use of our seas. As I say, I am here talking about the environment. Daniel would be here talking about—”

“I work closely with Minister Shanks. The Government’s mission is green energy power. To deliver on that green energy power, he needs offshore wind and that means he needs to put that in the seas and the oceans, which come under my responsibility. We work closely together. We have regular meetings. However, to be clear,…”

“On marine spatial planning and what we are trying to put where, I hope I have tried to explain the need for a strategic plan on what is going where in our ocean. As we have said, where we put offshore wind, where the MOD is, where cables are, where we dig for aggregates and all these things have evolved over time witho…”

“I know you are, yes.”

“If it is an MPA, it is based on features. If it is based on a whole-site approach, it would come under what we would call the highly protected marine areas instead. There are three HPMAs at the moment that are banning pretty much everything that takes place within that area. That is one thing we are looking at. I menti…”

“I am Emma Hardy. I am the Minister for Water and Flooding, but I also have responsibilities for the ocean, chemicals, and pesticides.”

“This is all about our plans to deliver on the Government’s mission for clean power. As you know, one of the most important missions the Government have is to deliver on clean power and one of the things we wanted to look at in terms of marine designation or MPA designation is also whether they are in the right place an…”

“There are different types of marine protected areas. Some were protecting migratory species, seals, harbour porpoises and various others. Some are protecting seabirds. Some are protecting habitats and species and then there are the HPMAs. Different MPAs are there for different reasons. Yes, some of it is about making s…”

“In terms of the marine spatial prioritisation, no, because we have a huge ambition on what we want to deliver on clean energy. This means we will ramp up what we do in terms of offshore wind. It was not done before, under the previous Government, that they had that strategic look at how we use our seas, where we put th…”

“We have not de-designated any MPAs at the moment. That has not happened. We are doing a review to, as I say, make sure they are in the right place for the right feature that they want to protect. As I have mentioned, there are diverse types of marine protected areas, some of them, as I say, protecting seabirds, some pr…”

“One thing I was genuinely delighted about was that after we won the election, Prime Minister Starmer recommitted the UK Government to the high level panel for sustainable oceans and he nominated me as chair for that panel. I have met some of the co-chairs of that. This is 15 different countries working together. Becaus…”

“Overseas territories that we are responsible for—Jenny?”

“If I may come back, we should be incredibly proud as a country that we are highly regarded when it comes to work that we do on oceans, and we have a genuinely huge global influence right across that. I give a bit of a shout-out to the DEFRA team and what it does when it goes abroad, because it does these negotiations a…”

“Oceana is a fantastic organisation and one of the many ENGOs that I meet and talk to. There are lots of hugely committed ENGOs in this area. This goes back to the point I made before that we need to think about marine spatial prioritisation. We need to think about marine planning. Lots of things have not been updated f…”

“Part of the statement refers to energy policy, so I am conscious as the DEFRA Minister that I am not speaking about DESNZ policy because that would be inappropriate. I hope I have explained what we are trying to do as a new Government, which is looking at prioritisation and making sure we have things in the right place…”

“I hate to repeat myself as well. However, if it is related to energy policy, it would not be appropriate for me to speak about somebody else’s brief.”

“With respect to Chagos, I will defer to the Minister from the FCDO.”

“We have some brilliant people working on science and innovation, and looking at our marine environment. In fact, lots of that evidence is partly what will guide the work we do on marine spatial prioritisation. They have also been looking at our MPA review. We need that level of scientific evidence to make sure that we …”

“This is an important point because, where there is a lack of transparency, people may misinterpret how decisions are made. My general rule of thumb is that I will try to be as transparent as possible unless there is a particular reason I am not able to share the data. Quite obviously, we might not share data and inform…”

“The fact that it has come out in the Dan Corry review means that this is an area that needs improvement, so we need to have a look at it. It is highlighted as a potential problem, so we need to look at ways to address it and resolve that. We are working on that now.”