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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to prevent the decline in the population of hazel dormice in the UK and to support dormice research projects.

The Government is taking action to tackle the decline of the common or hazel dormouse, a European Protected Species. This includes Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme targeted at species in rapid decline or at greatest risk of extinction.

Natural England works closely with the People’s Trust for Endangered Species providing funding for the national dormice monitoring scheme and re-introduction projects such as the re-introduction this summer of 38 dormice in woodland in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Agri-environment and woodland schemes such as Environmental Stewardship and now Countryside Stewardship fund the provision of habitats, for instance the management of grassland, the conservation and enhancement of hedgerow systems and the creation and maintenance of field margins, which encourage a range of species, including the hazel dormouse.