Coral Reefs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the article by the University of Edinburgh entitled Rescuing the cities of the deep: Corals from oil platforms find new homes off Shetland, published on 16 September 2025, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the research undertaken by the University of Edinburgh into the use of corals harvested from subsea structures to establish artificial reefs as part of seabed restoration projects.
Answered by Emma Hardy
The UK is home to cold-water corals off our coast and tropical coral reefs within our Overseas Territories. With 4,700 square kilometres of corals across our UK Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, the UK is responsible for the twelfth largest area of coral reefs in the world. Coral reefs host about a quarter of all known marine species and are a key source of food, livelihoods and economic opportunities to people in more than 100 countries around the world. We are engaged with this initiative from the University of Edinburgh and continue to consider all relevant evidence concerning the status and management of coral reefs, such as the 2025 global coral reef status report by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
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