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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of seals killed off the coast of the UK in each year since 2010.

Seal conservation is a devolved issue so I can only respond with respect to England.

No licences to cull seals have been issued in England since 2010.

This means that no permission has been granted for any common or grey seals to be taken or killed out of season. All common seals and the majority of grey seals are protected all year-round through a conservation order in the East of England.

The government has not, however, made an assessment of the number of seals which may have been killed off the English coast, notwithstanding the licensing and conservation order protections.