‘Defra, the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government have published the Marine Strategy Part Three: UK programme of measures. This outlines a comprehensive set of existing and planned measures that will help to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) in our seas. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires Member States to take action to achieve or maintain GES in their seas by 2020. GES involves protecting the marine environment while using marine resources sustainably. The UK’s Marine Strategy sets out how we are implementing the MSFD in the UK. The Marine Strategy Part Three is the final part of our Marine Strategy which also includes, in parts One and Two, our targets and indicators and the monitoring programmes that will be used to assess progress towards GES.’ Dominic Pattinson MSFD Implementation Team MSFDTeam@defra.gsi.gov.uk