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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making the use of catapults to harm wildlife illegal.

The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously, including those involving the use of catapults. There is already sufficient legislation in place which protects wildlife against the use of catapults.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects all wild birds and some wild animals in England and Wales. While the Act does not specifically include catapults in the list of weapons that a person must not use to kill an animal, it is still illegal under this Act to deliberately attempt to kill, injure, or harm protected species. There are a range of offences around deliberate attempts to kill, injure or inflict harm on wildlife under provisions not just in this Act, but also in the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and in the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Significant sanctions are available to judges to hand down to those convicted of crimes against wildlife under these Acts.