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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect breeding habitats for woodcock.

Habitat improvement is a devolved matter. In England, measures are being taken to improve habitats through agri-environment schemes such as Countryside Stewardship, which provides incentives to manage woodland sympathetically for wildlife, which in turn will benefit woodcock.

Woodcock also benefit from England’s extensive network of protected sites for wildlife such as sites of special scientific interest.