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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report entitled Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit Report: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, what steps he plans to take to strengthen accountability of estate management in relation to persecution of raptors, in particular (a) hen harrier, (b) golden eagle, (c) peregrine falcon, (d) white-tailed eagle and (e) goshawk.

We welcome this report and the fact that it recognises the UK’s global leadership in fighting wildlife and forestry crime. We invited the UN to undertake this analysis and we are proud to be the first G7 country to request this assessment.

There is always more we can do to tackle wildlife crime and we will carefully consider all of the UN’s recommendations – including those relating to raptor persecution - to help us build on the positive progress we have already made. Defra sits on the police-led Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group, which takes forward activities to raise awareness and facilitate intelligence and incident reporting, leading to increased prevention and enforcement activity. The group focuses on ‘hotspot’ areas of the country rather than specific species although it is recognised the five listed from a-e in this question are identified as being of particular concern where raptor persecution is concerned.

This Government takes wildlife crime seriously. Significant sanctions are available to judges to hand down to those convicted of wildlife crimes.  Most wildlife crimes carry up to an unlimited fine and/or a six-month custodial sentence.