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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of red grouse in the UK; and what estimate she has made of the value of red grouse shooting to the UK economy.

The British Trust for Ornithology and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds suggest that there are an estimated 230,000 breeding pairs of red grouse in the UK.

Information on the value of red grouse shooting is not held by the Government. However, according to an industry report (Public & Corporate Economic Consultants report 2014: The Value of Shooting, found at www.shootingfacts.co.uk) shooting is worth £2 billion annually to the rural economy and supports 74,000 jobs.