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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of countryside organisations on the effect of the numbers of badgers on numbers of hedgehogs.

Defra is working with partners to identify actions that will help the conservation of hedgehogs, particularly though the Terrestrial Biodiversity Group chaired by Natural England. The reasons for the decline of the hedgehog population are complex. Badgers are one of a number of potential factors in the decline in hedgehog numbers.