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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to give weasels legal protection and to declare them ‘vulnerable to extinction’, further to their falling numbers.

The 2018 IUCN-compliant Red list assessment for Britain's terrestrial mammals classified weasels as Least Concern in Great Britain with an estimated population of 308,000; this assessment also noted that there is a deficiency of data on this species. The Government is aware of recent research suggesting the weasel may have undergone significant recent declines. The IUCN Red list assessments are an internationally recognised approach using agreed guidelines, and is an objective evidence-led process. This new evidence will be taken into account and considered when the Red list is next updated.

As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the Government is committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species. Our landmark Environment Act requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline of species abundance by 2030, which will help to drive actions to deliver nature recovery including benefitting species such as weasels. The Act also established Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, conservation covenants and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities which will work together to direct investment and action across the country - including to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife such as weasels to recover and thrive as part of a Nature Recovery Network.

Beyond the Act, we are investing more funding than ever in nature, including over £750 million to protect, restore, and expand habitats like woodlands and peat bogs through the Nature for Climate Fund, and our £80 million Green Recovery Challenge Fund. And we are introducing three new schemes that reward farmers and land managers for the delivery of environmental benefits, including creating and preserving habitat, and making landscape-scale environmental changes, which will be crucial to supporting species recovery.