Members of Parliament from across the political parties have called on the UK government to ban damaging activities such as bottom-trawling, dredging, and seabed mining to be banned in the offshore marine protected areas of England.

Issued in a report released this week, the cross-party House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee has warned of the government’s failure to “effectively manage gaps in the network of Marine Protected Areas” in British waters, which is says is allowing damaging activities to take place and effectively destroy areas supposed to be safeguarded.

The UK’s 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 such areas from these practices.

The government has – in recent years – established 178 Marine Protected Areas 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 has recommended the government expand this network to 10% of UK waters by 2030 to meet its biodiversity targets adding the plan to designate more Highly Protected Marine Areas should be published by January 2026.

MP Toby Perkins, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, 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.”

The Labour MP for Chesterfield has added that while he doesn’t think bottom trawling bans need to be enforced in all marine areas, it is a “seriously damaging practice” that needs to be banned “in areas where marine life is most at threat,” citing the need to take “more advanced action.”

In 2023, the ocean advocacy group, Oceana UK issued a report in which it estimated that over 33,000 hours of bottom trawling had taken place in offshore MPAs. In 2024, this total hit 20,000 hours. Meanwhile, only 8.6% of the ocean is currently protected, with just 2.7% of that being protected effectively.

A total of $1.2 billion is estimated to be invested into ocean protection in a report issued this week which identified that through an annual investment of $15.8 billion returns and saved costs annually would reach some $85 billion.

The UK Committee has raised concerns about the UK’s current Marine Policy Statement, which guides 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.”

Also raised is the issue that the UK is still to ratify the UN 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 has so far failed to ratify it, nor has the government published a timeline to introduce to Parliament the primary legislation required to do so.

Until the Treaty is ratified by 60 countries, it will not come into force.

“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,” continued Perkins. “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.”

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