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 adequacy of funding allocated to the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

The Government takes wildlife crime seriously. Since 2016 Defra and the Home Office have committed £300k (roughly £165k each) a year to funding the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) until 2020/21. Decisions on the future funding of the NWCU are being taken as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review.

The UK is currently undergoing assessment under the UN-led International Consortium for Combatting Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit. This assessment will comprise a comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of our preventive and criminal justice responses, which are crucial to curtailing wildlife and forest crime nationally and internationally. The toolkit will also review UK wildlife crime policing structures, including the NWCU and Border Force. We expect the report to be finalised in six months.