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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what information his Department holds on the number of brown hares shot in England between February and October each year.

Defra holds no official statistics on the number of brown hares shot in England between February and October each year. We are however aware of a number of estimates made by stakeholder groups which range markedly from the low tens of thousands to the low hundreds of thousands.