Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Solicitor General, what steps she is taking to help ensure the effective prosecution of rural crime.

This Government is committed to working with the police and other partners to address the blight of rural crime.

The National Police Chiefs’ Council Wildlife and Rural Crime Strategy 2022-2025 provides a framework through which policing, and its partners, can work together to tackle the most prevalent threats and emerging issues which predominantly affect rural communities.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors work closely with local police officers and officers from the National Rural Crime Unit and National Wildlife Crime Unit to tackle all types of rural crime, ensuring timely charging decisions and effective prosecutions.

The Government announced earlier this year that both Units, which the Home Office funds, will receive over £800,000 to continue their important work.

The CPS provides legal guidance on Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime, which is available to all its prosecutors, to assist them in dealing with these cases, and specialist training to ensure that its prosecutors have the expert knowledge needed to prosecute these crimes.

The CPS has also recently appointed a national lead on rural crime who heads up a network of Wildlife, Rural and Heritage Crime Champions across the CPS, to work with organisations with an interest in tackling all forms of wildlife, rural and heritage crime.