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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of birds that are killed by (a) off shore and (b) on shore wind turbines each year.

The annual collisions of birds with individual windfarms are currently not assessed due to limitations in technology.

Defra is working with other Government departments, marine regulators, Statutory Nature Conservation Bodies, industry, NGOs and academics to understand the impacts on seabirds more fully and to find ways to manage and mitigate them. This includes a project currently underway to explore the ability to use remote sensing technology to better understand the population impacts on seabird populations from offshore wind.

We are also working with Natural England to develop a comprehensive and ambitious English Seabird Conservation and Recovery Plan, which will aim to assess the vulnerability of each seabird species in light of the pressures they are facing and propose actions to address them.