Barry Gardiner MP: written questions
4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025
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Our reporting years run from 4 July to 3 July, starting with the 2024 general election. They are not official parliamentary sessions. Office costs keep IPSA’s April–March financial years. Records may cover only part of a year; a missing record does not mean no work was done.
Read what this MP said, asked and contributed in Parliament.
22 published records · newest first.
Written questions
Marine Protected AreasDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 2 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64391More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timeline is for implementing measures in Inshore Marine Protected Areas.
Answer: The responsibility for developing byelaws lies with the ten Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCAs). We are encouraging the IFCAs to complete as soon as possible the good work they have already done to ensure our MPAs are effectively protec...
Answered 7 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordMarine Protected Areas: ByelawsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 2 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64390More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his planned timeline is for the implementation of the stage 3 offshore MPA byelaws once the consultation has been concluded.
Answer: We aim to implement any necessary byelaws quickly. However, this will depend on the number and complexity of responses received to the consultation.
Answered 7 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordMarine Protected Areas: Bottom TrawlingDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 2 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64389More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of England's waters would be closed to bottom trawling when the proposed stage 3 byelaws are implemented.
Answer: We cannot pre-judge the outcome of the stage 3 byelaw consultation, which is currently in progress.
Answered 7 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordMarine Protected Areas: ByelawsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 2 Jul 2025AnsweredUIN 64388More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department adopted the features-based approach for the assessment method for the stage 3 Marine Protected Area byelaws.
Answer: The Marine Management Organisation uses a feature-based approach for developing fisheries management measures in England’s Marine Protected Areas, including the proposed stage 3 byelaws. Sometimes these management measures will involve restrictions across...
Answered 7 Jul 2025
Original Parliament recordMarine Environment: ConservationDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 31 Mar 2025AnsweredUIN 42390More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to publish an implementation plan for the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative.
Answer: Since the publication of the Marine Wildlife Bycatch Mitigation Initiative, we have continued our work to minimise and, where possible, eliminate the bycatch of sensitive marine species. That has included renewing Clean Catch for a further 3-year period. ...
Answered 3 Apr 2025
Original Parliament recordBiodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction AgreementDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 24 Feb 2025AnsweredUIN 32907More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2025 to Question 22880 on the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, whether his Department has drafted the secondary legislation req
Answer: The Government is completely committed to ratification of the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement)...
Answered 3 Mar 2025
Original Parliament recordBritish Overseas Territories: Darwin PlusDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 29 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 27085More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the objectives set out in the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs' speech entitled The Kew Lecture: Foreign Secretary's speech on the
Answer: In 2020, Defra commissioned an independent review of the Darwin Plus programme. This found Darwin Plus projects to have a strong, positive impact on the capacity of the Territories to deliver long-term strategic outcomes for the natural environment, which...
Answered 4 Feb 2025
Original Parliament recordDarwin PlusDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23708More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the future of the Darwin Plus programme.
Answer: In November 2024, Minister Doughty and Minister McCarthy met with the elected leaders and representatives of the Overseas Territories at the UK Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council. The UK Government confirmed that it would continue to work in p...
Answered 22 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordBiodiversity: British Overseas TerritoriesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23707More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what percentage of his Department's total biodiversity budget was spent on supporting biodiversity in the UK Overseas Territories in 2024-05.
Answer: UK Government biodiversity spend is across multiple organisations and this funding contributes to other objectives, such as water quality, net zero and food security. As such it is not possible to provide an exact figure of total domestic expenditure on b...
Answered 17 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordBiodiversity: British Overseas TerritoriesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23706More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of total percentage of the biodiversity for which the UK has global responsibility is located in the UK's Overseas Territories.
Answer: The Joint Nature Conservation Committee, as the Government’s statutory nature advisor, does not have, nor is it aware of, an estimate of the total percentage of the biodiversity for which the UK has global responsibility and is located in the UK Overseas ...
Answered 20 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordDarwin PlusDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 14 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23705More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was the total funding allocated to projects by Darwin Plus in each financial year since 2019-20.
Answer: Total funding allocated to Darwin Plus projects in each financial year since 2019-20 is provided in the table below. YearTotal funding taken up by Darwin Plus projects 2019-2020£3.81m2020-2021£4.55m2021-2022£6.65m2022-2023£8.50m2023-2024£10.12m2024-2025£8...
Answered 21 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordMarine Protected Areas: FisheriesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 13 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23251More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the paper entitled Marine Protected Areas network report (2019 to 2024), published on 18 December 2024, what steps he plans to take to protect designated features wit
Answer: Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are already protected from the point of designation by the planning and marine licensing regimes that cover activities such as dredging for aggregates and construction of offshore wind farms. Fishing activity falls outside th...
Answered 20 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordSeas and Oceans: ConferencesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 13 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23250More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he will attend the UN Oceans Conference in June 2025.
Answer: The third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3), co-hosted by France and Costa Rica in June, will be at a critical time for the ocean and a stocktake of progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water. The UK is supportive of an action-orienta...
Answered 16 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordFishing CatchesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 13 Jan 2025AnsweredUIN 23249More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2025 to Question 17503 on Fishing Catches, what (a) criteria and (b) thresholds were applied in deciding which instances of non-compliance with the
Answer: This is a devolved matter, and the information provided therefore relates to England only. In deciding how to manage instances of non-compliance, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) follows the principles of inform, educate, enforce in accordance wit...
Answered 17 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordBiodiversity: International CooperationDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 17 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 20560More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what his priorities are for the 68th Global Environment Facility Council Meeting in relation to target (a) 5 and (b) 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.
Answer: The 68th Global Environment Facility Council meeting will discuss a programme of work to fund projects that will deliver environmental benefits, including contributing to achieving the targets of the Global Biodiversity Framework. The UK’s priorities will...
Answered 6 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordMarine Protected Areas: FisheriesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 17 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 20559More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2024 to Question 17500 on Marine Protected Areas: Fisheries, for what reason he was not able to provide a timescale.
Answer: The Department has not yet been able to provide a timescale for these measures due to the need to follow due process and consider how we can best meet the Government’s priorities. The Government recognises the need for action to protect and restore our ma...
Answered 6 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordFisheries: MonitoringDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 17 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 20558More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2024 to Question 17501 on Fisheries: Monitoring, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making it a mandatory requirement for ve
Answer: Defra have already assessed which fisheries should have mandatory Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) and published the results in 2023. The assessment concluded that over 24 metre pelagic trawlers in English waters should be a priority. Implementation beg...
Answered 6 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordFisheries: QuotasDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 3 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 17504More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make a an assessment of the effectiveness of the distribution of quota between (a) foreign and (b) domestic-owned trawlers under ten metres in the UK inshore fleet.
Answer: The Secretary of State determination of fishing opportunities for British fishing boats sets UK fishing quotas. This quota is only allocated to British-registered and licensed vessels. These vessels must comply with the economic link licence condition. Th...
Answered 10 Dec 2024
Original Parliament recordFishing CatchesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 3 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 17503More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will (a) take steps to review the operation of the landing obligation and (b) publish the number of enforcement actions taken against vessels that have failed to comply with the
Answer: This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only a) Defra has been reviewing the operation of the landing obligation as part of wider reforms to discards management in England. In 2025, these reforms will include tr...
Answered 3 Jan 2025
Original Parliament recordTotal Allowable CatchesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 3 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 17502More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will publish the opening positions for each Total Allowable Catch in the (a) EU/UK bilateral and (b) EU/UK/Norway trilateral negotiations.
Answer: Due to the nature of the negotiations, it is not appropriate to publicly disclose negotiating documents detailing the UK’s opening positions. Our bilateral negotiations with the EU and our trilateral negotiations with the EU and Norway have both concluded...
Answered 10 Dec 2024
Original Parliament recordFisheries: MonitoringDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 3 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 17501More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many vessels are taking part in the early adopter phase of the remote electronic monitoring rollout by having cameras installed; and what steps he is taking to increase the number
Answer: There is one early adopter vessel volunteering to take part in the first fishery, over-24 metre pelagic trawlers in all English waters. Further vessels will be recruited for implementation in other fisheries.
Answered 10 Dec 2024
Original Parliament recordMarine Protected Areas: FisheriesDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural AffairsTabled 3 Dec 2024AnsweredUIN 17500More
Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish measures for the remaining offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) under stage (a) 3 and (b) 4 of the Marine Management Organisation's offshore MPA process.
Answer: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Rotherham, on 16 September 2024, PQ 4529: It is essential to manage bottom trawling in our Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) appropriately due to the significant damage it can have on protect...
Answered 10 Dec 2024
Original Parliament record
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4 Jul 2024–3 Jul 2025. One record per UIN and tabled date; the named department is not a measure of answer quality.
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