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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) red and (b) grey squirrels in each region of the UK in each of the last three years.

The Forestry Commission estimates that there are 15,000 red squirrels in England and over two million grey squirrels. This estimate dates from 2014 and no more recent data are available. The red squirrel population is fragmented, occurring only in isolated populations on the islands in Poole Harbour, on the Isle of Wight and across the north of England.

Wildlife management is a devolved matter and so the conservation of species in other parts of the UK is a matter for the Devolved Administrations.