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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ban hare coursing.

We set out in the Action Plan on Animal Welfare published on 12 May our intention to bring in legislation to crack down on the illegal practice of hare coursing. We aim to provide law enforcement with more tools to address the issue effectively. On 17 June I chaired a round table with the police and stakeholders to share our outline proposals and initiate detailed consultations with officials.