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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department last held discussions with its international counterparts on tackling the illegal trade in wildlife and endangered species.

The UK plays a leading role in driving the global response to eradicate illegal wildlife trade and regularly holds discussions with its international counterparts.

In 2018, the UK convened the largest ever global Illegal Wildlife Trade conference at which 65 countries signed up to the London Declaration, committing to take urgent, coordinated action against illegal wildlife trade.

Since then, the UK has raised the importance of tackling illegal wildlife trade to protect biodiversity and endangered species with other countries during regular bilaterals and during meetings under international agreements such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).