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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the use of Goodnature A24 traps on the hedgehog population.

On the basis of currently available evidence we are confident that hedgehogs can be excluded from the Goodnature A24 traps effectively when they are set according to the manufacturer’s instructions and an excluder tunnel is used.

The trap is not approved for trapping hedgehogs. It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, unless done so under licence, to use any trap or snare to kill or take a hedgehog, or to set in position any trap or snare in a way calculated to cause bodily injury to a hedgehog.