To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2008, Official Report, column 1633W, whether the network of ecologically coherent and well-managed protected areas are those under Natura 2000 network; and if he will make a statement. (191611)

The network of ecologically coherent and well-managed protected areas referred to in the answer of 27 February 2008, Official Report, column 1633W, will include Natura sites, of which we currently have 76 Special protections areas with marine habitats for birds, and 72 special areas of conservation with marine habitats or species.

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee has been consulting on seven initial offshore sites since December 2007. The consultation is due to close on 14 March 2008. However, we expect that the network will also include a number of marine conservation zones, as proposed under the forthcoming Marine Bill.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he expects the majority of the marine Natura 2000 network protecting species and habitats of key importance to be in place; and if he will make a statement. (191612)

The Government are committed to having the majority of the Natura 2000 network in place by 2010, and is aiming for the network to be substantially completed by 2012.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many offshore marine sites his Department has surveyed for marine protected area status; when they were surveyed; and if he will make a statement. (191613)

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) has been consulting on seven initial offshore marine sites since December 2007. These include: Braemar Pockmarks, Darwin Mounds, Haig Fras, North Norfolk Sandbanks and Saturn Reef, Scanner Pockmark, Stanton Banks and Wyville Thomson Ridge. The consultation is due to close on 14 March 2008.

Of the potential offshore Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) currently undergoing consultation, DEFRA funded surveys for Wyville Thomson Ridge in summer 2006, and Stanton Banks in summer 2003.

Our programme of data collection and survey will continue to identify further sites. Currently, the 13 areas listed in the table have been surveyed for Natura 2000 sites for Annex I habitats through collaborative and commissioned survey. These areas will then be considered by the JNCC against the selection criteria. As a result, some may be recommended to Government as SACs over the next two years.

Further areas of search for “reefs and submarine structures made by leaking gases” will be surveyed by JNCC in 2008, 2009 and 2010 on the Scottish Continental Shelf, the offshore area in the North West of Scotland and the Irish sea.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2008, Official Report, column 1634W, on seas and oceans: Treaty of Lisbon, what provisions in the Treaty on the European Communities and the Treaty on European Union set out the respective competences of the EU and member states in relation to (a) marine biological resources, (b) marine biological resources under the Common Fisheries Policy and (c) the marine environment; and if he will make a statement. (191737)

The conservation of marine biological resources under the Common Fisheries Policy is an exclusive competence of the European Union.

All other aspects of marine biological resources and the marine environment are a shared competence.

The Lisbon treaty will not change this, and will be reflected in articles 3(1)(d) and 4(2)(d) and (e) of the treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Tofu).