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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to combat the threat to biodiversity from biological invaders.

This Government takes the threat to biodiversity posed by invasive species seriously and is committed to preventing any damage and continuing to mitigate risk. As part of these efforts the GB Invasive Non-Native Species Strategy, first published in 2008 and reviewed in 2015, operates to ensure coordinated action across Great Britain. This strategy follows internationally recognised principles and priorities of prevention, rapid eradication and management. For example, since the arrival of the Asian hornet in France in 2004, Defra has been aware of the increased risk of this hornet to our bees and beneficial insects. We have plans in place to detect and tackle it, which we have successfully deployed several times since the first UK incursion in autumn 2016.

The Governments of each UK administration are putting into place penalties and sanction regimes for the EU Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species, a core provision of which is the creation of a list of species subject to strict restrictions. These species cannot be imported, kept, bred, transported, sold, used or exchanged, allowed to reproduce, grown or cultivated, or released into the environment. There are currently 49 species listed under the regulation.