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 28 March 2018 to Question 134095 on Department for Transport: Hedgehogs, what steps he is taking as species champion for the native hedgehog to make hedgehogs a protected species.

Hedgehogs are listed under Schedule 6 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 so are protected from being killed using prohibited methods such as a crossbows, traps and snares. The Government is committed, through the 25 Year Environment Plan, to creating or restoring 500,000 hectares of wildlife rich habitat for the benefit of species such as the hedgehog.

To designate hedgehogs as a protected species would require them to be listed under Schedule 5 of the Act. There are no plans to do so as protection of the hedgehogs’ habitat from destruction or disturbance, as defined in the Act, could mean that aspects of garden and land maintenance would constitute a criminal offence, and this may have the unintended consequence of discouraging the creation of hedgehog habitat.