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 the introduction in Scotland from 1 March 2021 of a licensing regime making it illegal to intentionally kill, injure or take mountain hares at any time without a licence, whether his Department is planning to introduce protections for the last surviving population in England of mountain hares in the Peak District National Park.

This Government remains committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species. We continue to consider how we might best do this for mountain hare and the role of protection of the species in law, where there is evidence that this will provide genuine benefits.