Marine Protected Areas: Bottom Trawling

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 4 November 2025.

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Photo of Charlotte Cane Charlotte Cane Liberal Democrat, Ely and East Cambridgeshire

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to ban bottom trawling in Marine Protected Areas.

Photo of Emma Hardy Emma Hardy The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The Government’s approach is to restrict fishing which is assessed as damaging to the specific protected features in each Marine Protected Area, based on advice from the Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies. A consultation on the latest round of proposed fisheries byelaws, which proposes further restrictions on bottom trawling, closed on 29 September. The Marine Management Organisation is now carefully considering all responses received, and decisions will be made in due course.

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