Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for stealing protected wild birds' eggs in England were successful in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.

The Ministry of Justice holds information on prosecutions, convictions, and sentencing outcomes for summary offences in relation to nests and eggs of birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (HO offence code 19002). The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained through the Outcomes by Offence data tool in the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

A further breakdown of the published data is required to extract figures specific to stealing the eggs of protected wild birds, for the offences ‘Take eggs of Schedule 1 wild bird’ and ‘Take eggs of non-Schedule 1 wild bird’, under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Between 2019 and June 2023, there was one prosecution and one conviction in 2021 on a principal offence basis, relating to the eggs of a non-schedule 1 wild bird. Figures for the rest of 2023 will be available in the next update of the Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly publication, expected in May 2024.