Marine environment management

Inquiry5

The Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee (“the Committee”) agreed to undertake a short piece of work on marine environment management.

The Committee considered:

• Marine Protected Area (MPA) management;
• blue carbon potential and developments in Wales;
• current stakeholder engagement with the Welsh Government;
• marine energy development in Wales, including any current consenting constraints;
• marine planning and whether the Welsh Government’s proposed strategic resource areas are sufficient, and
• relationship with the Crown Estate licensing.

Evidence gathering:

To help inform this work, the Committee wrote to the Minister for Climate Change (PDF 125KB) to request an update on progress towards implementing recommendations made by the Fifth Senedd’s Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee in its report, The Welsh Government’s progress on Marine Protected Area management (November 2019). The Minister responded (PDF 300KB) on 1 December 2021.

Written evidence received in response to the Committee’s recent consultation on priorities for the Sixth Senedd was used to further inform this work, as well as additional evidence submitted by stakeholders.

On Thursday 9 December, the Committee held oral evidence sessions with stakeholders.

Report:

The Committee published its Report on the Welsh Government’s marine policies (PDF 1.51MB) on 22 Ferbuary 2022.

The Welsh Government responded (PDF 365 KB) on 4 April 2022.

A debate was held in Plenary on 18 May 2022.