Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been arrested for offences related to wildlife and timber trafficking as part of Operation Thunder in each of the last five years.

The primary objective of Operation Thunder is to increase seizures of items being illicitly trafficked, and use those seizures as the basis to initiate investigations into the organised groups around the world responsible for that trafficking. As a result, while no arrests have been recorded during the four-week period when Operation Thunder is active, that is not reflective of the full impact of subsequent investigations.

Border Force and the NCA have made zero arrests related to wildlife crime in the last five years during the four weeks per annum that Operation Thunder is active. However, investigations can often be complex, with criminality occurring across international jurisdictions, so the arrest phase can occur post-seizure of any illicit items seized rather than be contained to the four weeks of the exercise.