Mary Creagh, Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has said: “The Government has not adequately responded to our concerns around Marine Protected Areas.
Specifically, it has failed to outline a plan which addresses the delays in completing the Marine Conservation Zone network, continued to exclude reference areas from these Marine Conservation Zones, and taken no action towards improving its communications strategy”
The 2015 Conservative Party Manifesto made a commitment to “complete the network of [Marine Conservation Zones] MCZs”. The Government response states that it doesn’t expect the network to be complete until 2019.