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 effectiveness of National Trust Jersey and Birds on the Edge’s initiative to reintroduce puffins to breeding sites in Jersey; and whether his Department has taken recent steps to support the conservation of puffins in the UK.

As Jersey is a Crown Dependency, it would not be appropriate for the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to assess initiatives in Jersey.

The UK's seabirds, including puffins, are an important part of our natural heritage, and the government is committed to protecting them. Defra is working with Natural England to develop a comprehensive English Seabird Conservation Strategy (ESCS). This strategy will provide an assessment of the vulnerability of seabird species in light of the pressures they are facing and propose a comprehensive set of actions to address them. We are aiming to publish a final ESCS in spring 2023.

We are also working to minimise and, where possible, eliminate the accidental bycatch of seabirds in fishing gear. Defra and the Devolved Administrations are working to finalise the UK Bycatch Mitigation Initiative, which will be published shortly.