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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the level of risk arising from the arrival of the red swamp crayfish to the wildlife and environment in England; and what steps the Government will take in response to its arrival.

Defra carried out a thorough risk assessment of the potential impact of red swamp crayfish in 2011. The risk assessment concluded that this species would be likely to have major environmental impacts if established. In response to these findings, Defra developed an action plan to tackle the threats posed by this species and other invasive non-native crayfish. This can be found at:

www.nonnativespecies.org//downloadDocument.cfm?id=1120