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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Hunting with Hounds Act 2004; and if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to amend that Act to tackle incidences of continued hunting activity.

The Hunting Act 2004 makes it an offence to hunt a wild mammal with dogs except where it is carried out in accordance with the exemptions in the Act. This Government does not intend to amend the Hunting Act, and therefore has not made any assessment of proposals to do so.