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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2022 to Question 120825 on Ivory: Imports, what steps he is taking to end the licensing of ivory items entering the UK.

Import of ivory items into the UK is strictly regulated, as a result of requirements of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to which the UK is a Party and the UK will continue to implement the requirements of the Convention. For ivory items to be imported into the UK they must be accompanied by a CITES import permit.

Once commenced, the Ivory Act (2018) will introduce one of the toughest bans on elephant ivory sales in the world, by banning the dealing in items made of or containing elephant ivory, regardless of their age, unless they fall within one of the narrow and carefully defined exemptions. Dealing includes exporting it from the United Kingdom for sale or hire or importing it into the United Kingdom for sale or hire. We plan for the ban to come into force in spring 2022.