Question last asked in Parliment

[Roland]

And their answers

 

Birds of Prey

Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his Department's policy is on reintroducing golden eagles to northern England. [250124]

 

Huw Irranca-Davies: We are committed to conserving our native species and habitats and it is important to use our resources wisely for this purpose. We would support the reintroduction of species if justified on environmental and sustainability grounds, but any proposal would have to be very carefully considered.

 

I am not aware of any current proposals to reintroduce golden eagles to northern England. A reintroduction project for this species would require a full feasibility study and a formal assessment against internationally accepted guidelines produced by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) before it could commence. No such feasibility study or IUCN assessment has been undertaken or commissioned by Natural England.

 

Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his Department's policy is on population levels for the hen harrier in England; and what recent steps it has taken to preserve hen harrier populations. [250125]

 

Huw Irranca-Davies: My Department has implemented a number of initiatives recently to address the conservation of birds of prey, including the hen harrier:

 

The hen harrier was included in the list of species and habitats of principal importance for the conservation of biodiversity in England, published on 22 May 2008, under section 41 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. The

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listing means that Government must take reasonable steps to further their conservation or promote the taking of such steps by others.

 

Natural England is looking to improve the conservation of the hen harrier by examining the feasibility of reintroducing this species to the lowland part of its former range.

 

On the basis of the work carried out by the National Wildlife Crime Unit, hen harrier persecution is a UK wildlife crime priority. The inclusion of hen harrier persecution as a wildlife crime priority for two years running demonstrates how seriously the Government take this issue.

 

The wildlife incident investigation scheme (WIIS) investigates the deaths of wildlife throughout the UK where there is evidence that pesticide poisoning may be involved. WIIS is supported by the Campaign Against Illegal Poisoning (CAIP), which aims to protect some of Britain's rarest birds of prey and wildlife from accidental and illegal poisoning by pesticides, and was relaunched in July 2008. Over the next three years activities under CAIP will include preventing poisoning and improving detection of poisoning cases.

 

To emphasise the Government's concern about persecution of birds of prey, on 23 October 2008, I publicly signed a pledge with a number of conservation and shooting interest organisations that recognised the importance of raptors in England and that there is no place for the illegal killing of these species.