Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of classifying wildlife crime distinctly within crime statistics.

The Home Office already collects information on several wildlife offences recorded by the police in England and Wales which form part of the Notifiable Offence List (NOL) that forces are required to report to the Home Secretary. These are published on a quarterly basis by the Office for National Statistics. The latest data can be accessed in table A4 here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables

The NOL is generally restricted to those offences which are either triable either way (can be tried in Magistrates or Crown Courts) or indictable only (can only be tried in Crown Courts). Offences which are summary only (those that can only be tried in Magistrates Courts) do not form part of the NOL except for a very small number of violence against the person offences.