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Written Question
Animal Products: Imports
Monday 29th July 2024

Asked by: Baroness Fookes (Conservative - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to ban the import of trophies taken from endangered species.

Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The government committed in its manifesto to banning the import of hunting trophies.


Written Question
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
Tuesday 21st May 2024

Asked by: Baroness Quin (Labour - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions they have had with (1) European counterparts, and (2) other international partners, about how provisions of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora are being implemented.

Answered by Lord Benyon

Defra officials regularly discuss how the provisions of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) are implemented with both European counterparts and other international partners. This includes at regular meetings of the CITES Standing Committee which was last held in November 2023.


Written Question
Forests and Wildlife: Crime
Wednesday 15th May 2024

Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on implementing the recommendations included in the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime report entitled Wildlife and Forest Crime Analytic Toolkit Report, published in 2021.

Answered by Rebecca Pow

We welcomed the UN Office of Drugs and Crime report and the fact that it recognised the UK's global leadership in fighting wildlife and forestry crime. We invited the UN to undertake this analysis and we are proud to be the first G7 country to request this assessment.

We have carefully considered all the recommendations of the report and they are informing our work to help us build on the positive progress we have already made in tackling wildlife crime. This will include strategic engagement with our partners that have responsibilities where individual recommendations are concerned such as the devolved administrations, the Crown Prosecution Service, and the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU).

Many of the resourcing recommendations fall outside of Defra's remit but progress has already been made in response to the report. For example, in 2022 Defra more than doubled its funding of the NWCU to £1.2 million for the three-year period from 2022 to 2025, compared to £495,000 in the three years previous. Additionally, Border Force has increased numbers in their team specialising in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).


Written Question
Swifts: Conservation
Wednesday 24th April 2024

Asked by: George Eustice (Conservative - Camborne and Redruth)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the conservation status of the swift.

Answered by Rebecca Pow

The UK swift population is estimated at 59,000 pairs (2016) Swift population trends are monitored annually by the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS), which recorded a decline of 62% between 1995 and 2021, and of 40% between 2011 and 2021. Due to the declines recorded by BBS, swifts were added to the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern in the UK in 2021 and are considered ‘Endangered’ at GB level.

Natural England is currently undertaking a review of the conservation interventions needed to support the recovery of over 100 of our most threatened bird species, including the swift.


Written Question
Trapping: Regulation
Monday 15th April 2024

Asked by: Tracey Crouch (Conservative - Chatham and Aylesford)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of regulations on the use of snares.

Answered by Rebecca Pow

An industry-owned code of practice for the use of snares to control foxes in England sets out clear principles for the legal use of snares, using evidence from snare-use research to improve snare deployment and design.

Anyone using snares has a responsibility under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to ensure their activities do not harm protected species or cause any unnecessary suffering. Anyone committing an offence can face prosecution, an unlimited fine or even a custodial sentence.

We are looking at how snares are regulated as part of our continued drive to maintain the highest animal welfare standards in the world, and working to ensure the regulated use of the most appropriate trap and cull method which causes the least suffering whilst providing the greatest protection to crops, game birds or endangered species.


Written Question
West Africa: Timber
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have assessed the amount of rosewood timber that is exported from West African countries such as Mali, The Gambia and Senegal; what steps they have taken to ban or control within UK markets the sale of products made from West African rosewood; and what steps they have taken to protect endangered wild species, including rosewood in West Africa.

Answered by Lord Benyon

The UK is currently contributing funding towards a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) study on the conservation and trade in rosewood tree species but does yet not have an assessment of rosewood timber exports. We have robust mechanisms in place through the UK Timber Regulations (UKTR), which prohibit the placing of illegally harvested timber and timber products on the GB market and require operators - those first placing timber products on the market - to exercise due diligence. Those who trade in timber and timber products after they have been placed on the market are required to keep records of who they buy timber products from and any traders they sell them to. This enables timber and timber products to be traced.

The primary objective of the UKTR is to tackle illegal logging and to create a demand for legally harvested timber. Implementing the Regulations enables the protection of forests around the world, supporting the Government’s ambition to lead the world in environmental protection, end extreme poverty, and be at the forefront of action against global climate change.

The requirement to exercise due diligence under UKTR does not apply where a valid CITES permit accompanies the timber.

Rosewood species (Dalbergia and Guibourtia spp.) are listed on the CITES Appendices and so most rosewood timber imports into the UK will need a valid permit. Permit applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis by the UK CITES Management Authority, which will only issue permits if it has been possible to determine that the specimens to be imported were legally acquired and sustainably harvested.

The Government provides grants to a wide range of stakeholders to contribute to the protection of endangered wild species, including tackling illegal wildlife trade in West Africa, through the Biodiversity Challenge Funds. While these do not address rosewood in West Africa specifically, this has included empowering communities to protect their forests by the Society for the Conservation of Nature of Liberia, and supporting Royal Botanic Gardens Kew to monitor and halt illegal timber trade through DNA barcoding in Gabon and Congo (Brazzaville).

Further information on these examples and other projects supported by the Biodiversity Challenge Funds can be found at the websites of the Darwin Initiative and the Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund.


Written Question
Animal Products: Imports
Monday 12th February 2024

Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data his Department holds on the number of hunting trophies imported in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.

Answered by Rebecca Pow

The UK records data on import permits for hunting trophies of certain species. An import permit is required for hunting trophies of all species listed on Annex A of the Wildlife Trade Regulations, and 6 species listed on Annex B.

Data on the international trade in endangered species, including information about UK imports of hunting trophies, is published in the CITES trade database (available online at trade.cites.org. For 2022, 14 instances of hunting trophies imported into GB are recorded. The UK will be submitting data for 2023 imports in due course, which will be publicly available later this year.


Written Question
Trapping: Animal Welfare
Friday 9th February 2024

Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his animal welfare policies of the use of snares.

Answered by Rebecca Pow

The management of predators plays an important role in supporting the recovery of some of our most vulnerable species.

An industry-owned code of practice for the use of snares to control foxes in England sets out clear principles for the legal use of snares, using evidence from snare-use research to improve snare deployment and design.

We are looking at how snares are regulated as part of our continued drive to maintain the highest animal welfare standards in the world, and working to ensure the regulated use of the most appropriate trap and cull method which causes the least suffering whilst providing the greatest protection to crops, game birds or endangered species.


Written Question
Animal Welfare
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Mark Eastwood (Conservative - Dewsbury)

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the impact of his Department's publication entitled Action Plan for Animal Welfare, published on 12 May 2021, on animal welfare in (a) Dewsbury, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) the UK.

Answered by Mark Spencer

The Government has an ambitious agenda for animal welfare and conservation reforms, which we continue to take forward during this Parliamentary session. We will continue to introduce and support legislative and non-legislative reforms where possible.

Since the publication of the Action Plan, we have delivered on key manifesto commitments: we have increased the penalties for those convicted of animal cruelty, passed the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 and launched the Animal Sentience Committee. We have made cat microchipping compulsory and have announced the extension of the Ivory Act (2018) to cover five endangered species. In addition, we have provided for penalty notices to apply to animal welfare offences, introduced new police powers to tackle hare coursing, and banned glue traps.

We are pleased to have introduced the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill to deliver our manifesto commitment to end this trade. The Bill will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury caused by exporting live animals.

In December 2023, the Government laid the Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2023 in Parliament and published the summary of responses to its 2023 consultation on Licensing of specialist private primate keepers in England.

Defra maintains a close working relationship with the zoo sector, and we will continue to build upon this to identify non-legislative improvements.  We aim to publish updated zoo standards early this year, which we have developed in collaboration with the sector and the Zoos Expert Committee, which raise standards and support enforcement.

Whilst no specific analysis has been undertaken for individual locations, policies regularly undergo evaluation or post implementation reviews to assess their effectiveness in meeting their animal welfare objectives.


Written Question
Biodiversity
Tuesday 30th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)

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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to expedite the delivery of the apex goal set out in the Executive Summary of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2023 to halt the decline in biodiversity and achieve 'thriving plants and wildlife'.

Answered by Lord Benyon

We are committed to meeting our ambitious target to halt and then reverse species decline and are accelerating action towards delivery.

In June last year we launched a multi-million-pound Species Survival Fund to provide early progress towards our species abundance targets and support the recovery of declining species. The fund will support projects focussed on the creation and restoration of wildlife-rich habitats, including on protected sites.

Through Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme Capital Grant Scheme, launched April 2023, we have also provided £14.5M of funding for 63 projects delivered in partnership with 74 different organisations to take action to halt and reverse the decline of 150 rare species, including the critically endangered European eel and the Greater Mouse-eared bat.

In November we announced the 34 projects selected for the £25 million second round of our Landscape Recovery scheme. These projects will collectively restore more than 35,000 hectares of peatland, sustainably manage more than 20,000 hectares of woodland, including some temperate rainforest, create over 7,000 hectares of new woodland and benefit more than 160 protected sites (SSSIs). This builds on the success of the first 22 Landscape Recovery projects which are already underway, aiming to restore more than 600 km of rivers and targeting the conservation of more than 260 flagship species. This is alongside increased incentives, announced in January, for farmers to deliver environmental outcomes which will support habitats and species through our Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship schemes.

We are also rolling out Nature Recovery Projects across the country to create improved and better-connected habitats for wildlife and improve public access to nature. In July 2023 we launched a further six projects covering over 176,000 ha of land across England. These projects build on the G7 legacy project in Cornwall launched in 2021 and the five other nature recovery projects launched in 2022 which together span around 120,200 hectares.