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 level of ivory imports to the UK in the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

Import permits for bringing ivory into the UK are managed on behalf of Defra by the Animal and Plant Health Agency. The number of permits issued in the last five years is shown below:

The figures supplied above refer to permits that have been ‘returned used’, which is a confirmed import to the UK and will be different from the ‘permits issued’. It is not uncommon for permits to be issued and never returned either ‘used’ or ‘un-used’.