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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides found in birds of prey in England in the last ten years.

The Health and Safety Executive chairs the Government Oversight Group for Rodenticide Stewardship (GOG). GOG received annual reports from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) on the residues of second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs) detected in barn owls and red kites from 2016 until 2022 and these are published online by UKCEH. There has not been a statistically significant reduction in exposure of barn owls to SGARs in this time. Natural England monitors SGARs in the red kite and there was no observed change in concentrations for the sum of SGAR residues found in this species over the period 2015 – 2021. Reports have been unavailable since 2022 as outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza prohibited collection of samples. Sample collection resumed in 2025 and GOG expects to receive further SGAR residues reports by January 2027.