Thank you to everyone who has contacted me about protecting our oceans.

I greatly value our waterways. As well as their economic power, our seas and oceans support a range of diverse marine ecosystems, providing rich biodiversity and acting as an important carbon store. I am concerned about the threats they face from human activity.

We must intensify our efforts to understand, preserve and harness the power of our oceans.

As you know, the UN Global Oceans Treaty was adopted in June and has received over 80 signatures. In September, it reached the threshold needed of 60 signatures and will come into force in January 2024. The UK Government indicated in July 2023 that it would look to adopt and ratify the treaty as quickly as possible.

I share concerns on deep sea mining. I support a pause until and unless there is clear scientific evidence it can be done safely and the marine environment can be effectively protected by new regulation. The UK Government recently announced a temporary suspension on supporting or sponsoring deep sea mining until enough scientific evidence is available to understand the impact on ecosystems.

We know mining in the deep sea will cause adverse impacts to the environment. An independent expert review commissioned by the Government and published in October 2022, for example, noted that deep sea ecosystems are considered to be particularly sensitive to disturbance, with recovery not evident over decades in test areas and with bigger commercial-scale impacts expected to last centuries.

I appreciate concerns regarding oil and gas in the North Sea. I recognise we will continue to need to use North Sea oil and gas, including production from existing fields, for decades, and I do not support revoking granted licences. However, I do not support handing out new licences to explore new oil and gas fields. New exploration in the North Sea will have no effect on energy bills and would not offer the right answer for either the economy or the environment.

I believe the quickest, cheapest and best answer for our national energy security is a green energy sprint with a phased and just transition to protect the interests of oil and gas workers in the North Sea. This would help fight the climate crisis and bring down bills. Crucially, it would also harness the technologies and opportunities of the future to create hundreds of thousands of good, well-paid jobs. I therefore support calls to make our electricity system fossil fuel free by 2030, including by quadrupling offshore wind, doubling onshore wind and more than tripling solar.

Thank you once again to those who have contacted me.