To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (i) to outline his Department’s strategy for managing coastal erosion and coastal changes; (ii) whether he will seek to have coastal erosion considered within the Executive’s strategy for climate change; and (iii) to detail any published reports since May 2016.

(i)My Department does not have a specific strategy on managing coastal erosion and coastal change, however these are included in wider Departmental policies. These include the Marine Policy Statement and the draft Marine Plan which provide a framework for any decision making that affects the Northern Ireland marine area. Additionally, the Northern Ireland Climate Change Adaptation Programme 2019-2024 identifies actions that relate to coastal erosion

(ii)I look forward to considering with my Executive colleagues how these policy frameworks can help inform climate change strategy.

(iii)In January 2019, DAERA and DfI jointly published the ‘Baseline Study and Gap Analysis of Coastal Erosion Risk Management NI’. This report made a number of recommendations and my Department is working with DfI and the Coastal Forum to develop a Coastal Forum work programme that can progress these recommendations. The report can be found at https://www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/infrastructure/coastal-erosion-risk-management-report-2019.pdf. No other reports relating to this matter have been published.