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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what further steps they intend to take to eradicate the market in ivory to protect the world’s population of elephants.

The UK is leading global efforts to protect elephants. On 3 April, the Government confirmed that it will introduce a ban on the sale of ivory items of all ages in the UK with narrow and limited exemptions. Primary legislation will be required to implement this ban and the Government will introduce a Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows.

This proposed ban will be the toughest in Europe and amongst the toughest in the world. It will send the strongest possible message that the UK does not consider commercial trade in any ivory that could fuel poaching to be acceptable.

The ban will complement other action that the Government is taking to tackle elephant poaching and the broader illegal wildlife trade. We are investing £26 million globally to tackle the systemic issues driving the illegal wildlife trade, and the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund has already provided £14 million for 47 projects around the world. This includes supporting key countries to develop National Ivory Action Plans.

The Government will also continue to call on other countries to take action on addressing the illegal wildlife trade. We will be bringing global leaders back to London in October 2018 for the Illegal Wildlife Trade conference, working with our international partners to tackle this criminal trade. This will include taking action to protect elephants.