Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help preserve hen harrier numbers.

Hen harriers are monitored year-round by Natural England (NE) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. NE staff engage closely with land managers of hen harrier habitat, and in the breeding season support the licenced use of Diversionary Feeding which enables nesting hen harriers to provide sufficient food to their chicks, improving the survival of young harriers while reducing the pressure from hunting on gamebird stock.

Field-based monitoring is underpinned by fitting satellite ‘tags’ to some hen harriers. This provides invaluable insights into their movements and habitat use and flags when and where they might have died, enabling their recovery for postmortem analysis and an enforcement response where illegal persecution may have played a role in the harrier’s death.

Bird of prey persecution is a national wildlife crime priority. Defra supports the work of a Tactical Delivery Group which brings stakeholders together to tackle such criminality. Defra is also a principal funder of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU). In 2024, the NWCU launched the Hen Harrier Task Force – a partnership designed to help tackle illegal persecution of the species. It uses innovative technology such as drones and specialised detection dogs to enhance evidence collection in remote areas.