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MPs call for Government to ban bottom trawling in protected areas of England’s waters­  

5 June 2025

Report: Governing the Marine Environment

MPs have urged the Government to ban damaging activities such as bottom trawling in certain protected areas of England’s waters, in a report published today. 

In the report, the cross-party House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee calls on the Government to ban activities that damage the seabed, such as bottom trawling, dredging and mining in offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The Committee warns of the Government’s “failure to effectively manage gaps in the network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)”, which it says is allowing these damaging activities to take place in protected areas. 

Minister for Water Emma Hardy told the Committee that the Government was “committed to not having bottom trawling in areas that damage the MPAs, especially when they are attached to features that we are trying to protect”. But the Government has so far not set out a timeline for taking further action to protect MPAs from the practice. 

To protect important marine habitats, the Government has in recent years established 178 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) covering nearly 900,000 square kilometres of English waters. However, these areas are multi-use, meaning that activities that damage the environment can take place if they do not directly impact the specified protected features. 

Damaging and extractive activities are completely banned only in Highly Protected Marine Areas, of which the UK has just three. The Committee recommends the Government expand this network to 10% of UK waters by 2030 to meet biodiversity targets, based on evidence of their effectiveness in marine nature recovery. It says the plan to designate more HMPAs should be published in a report by January 2026. 

The Committee also raises concerns about the UK’s Marine Policy Statement, which guides planning decisions for the UK’s seas. Last published in 2011, with an update after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the Committee says the Marine Policy Statement is “outdated, not fit for purpose and no longer reflects Government policy or pressures on the marine environment.”

The Committee recommends Ministers issue a revised Statement no later than January 2026, and that it clearly sets out the Government’s priorities for marine usage and how it will make decisions on balancing marine exploitation with protection. 

MPs also raise concerns in the report about the UK’s failure to ratify the UN’s High Seas Treaty, which aims to protect marine life in the high seas by establishing protected areas in international waters. The UK has signed the treaty but so far failed to ratify it, nor has the Government published a timeline to introduce to Parliament the primary legislation required to ratify the Treaty. Until the Treaty is ratified by 60 countries, it will not come into force. 

In the report, MPs say they are “concerned the protection of the ocean is not demonstrably a priority for the Government” and urge the Government to set a clear timeline for introducing the required legislation. To send a “clear signal” that the UK is prioritising marine protection, the Committee says the treaty should be ratified no later than September 2025, two years after the UK originally signed it.

Chair comment

Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Toby Perkins MP. said:  

“UK waters are teeming with complex ecosystems that are not only precious in their own right but also critical to sustaining the delicate balance of marine life. Ministers must ensure that marine protected areas live up to their name. 

Activities with the potential to seriously damage marine environments, such as bottom trawling, risk slipping through the regulatory net. While such activities do not need to be banned everywhere, in areas where marine life is most at threat we need to take more advanced action. 

Ministers have all the information they need to press ahead with banning bottom trawling in the offshore protected areas where it presents the most risk. Why the delay? Our oceans cannot afford any more prevarication. It is time to act. Doing so would send a clear signal ahead of this month’s UN Oceans Conference that the UK is serious about protecting valuable ecosystems in our waters. 

So too would bringing forward a long overdue update to the UK’s Marine Policy Statement, to outline how the Government will balance exploiting our marine resources with protecting them, and setting out a timeline for ratifying the Global Ocean Treaty, taking us one step closer to real protection for marine life in the high seas.”

Further information

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