Speeches by Hardy.

“At this moment, no, because we do not know where we will put MPAs in the future and where we have got to at this stage of marine spatial prioritisation. That would be impossible to quantify at this moment. However, even though I sit here as the marine conservationist, if you like, I still talk to—”

“Of course. I still talk to the fishing community as well. We still have those conversations to see how we can best manage it. There is a spatial squeeze. There is no getting around it. That is a challenge and that is why we need to think about it strategically. [Interruption.]”

“In terms of new proposals for HPMAs? So that I have understood, is that about designating new HPMAs?”

“Designating new ones, okay. Under the MPA review, we are looking at all of them and HPMAs are included in that, but at the moment, in that review, we are not considering designating new HPMAs. It is looking at whether the things we have are in the right place. Also, importantly, some of the HPMAs have not had all of th…”

“To be clear, going back to spatial squeeze and all the concerns around that, the fishing community is fully represented in all of those conversations around spatial squeeze by the Minister for fisheries, Minister Zeichner, but part of the—”

“He is a wonderful Minister. We also talk directly to the fishing community as well. Part of the difficulty at the moment is that because we are doing the marine spatial prioritisation, of course we do not know at the moment where the offshore wind will be because that is part of having the strategic plan. However, to o…”

“To mention one success story with the marine spatial prioritisation —because who does not like to share success—in the past I was informed that there was regular conflict with the fishing community about the telecommunications cables that go along the bottom of the ground and the types of fishing and how that disrupted…”

“It is devolved, so I was completely respectful of—”

“I am aware of how it went, but I want to say for the record that I respect that it is a devolved decision, and it is a devolved Government. Of course, you are looking at where you are putting things. From my understanding of that situation—and I respect you are closer to it than I am—one important thing is talking to t…”

“One hundred per cent.”

“Thank you.”

“On the back of that, to show our commitment to it even though it has not been ratified by Parliament yet, we know that DEFRA has already commissioned research to have a look at potential area-based management tools for the future, including marine protected areas. We are already looking at getting ahead so that, when i…”

“Yes. I should mention for the record that of course this is near my constituency as well, so there is also a constituency issue here. I have to say the MCA did a great job. It immediately began retrieval, which is happening at beaches, and encouraged the public not to go and retrieve some of it themselves because we ar…”

“I am happy to.”

“So that I have not conflated the two things, on BBNJ, of course, we have the research going, so—”

“You are doing me a linking—”

“I totally understand. To give the overarching response, I want to get this right. I want to make sure that we have this right. Stage 3 byelaws cover 43 MPAs. That is 13% of English waters—almost three times the size of the previous stage when we were looking at the byelaws. Almost half of the UK fishing fleet catches t…”

“Absolutely. As you know, clean energy power is a huge mission of the Government and an important priority. I have been talking to some of the offshore wind industry about what is holding up consent, what is holding up planning and why they have not been able to go on with projects as quickly as they could under the pre…”

“This is the marine spatial prioritisation. We meet The Crown Estate. The Crown Estate of course is responsible for leasing the seabed and determining what goes where. We are having those conversations with different Ministers from different Departments along with The Crown Estate to look at what we are putting where. W…”

“As I say, our priority is to go through, looking at MSP, marine spatial prioritisation, and then, as I announced in my written statement around the Marine Recovery Fund, we want to help unlock growth. It is a priority for the Government. It is one of the five priorities for the Government so, clearly, it is a priority …”