Thank you for contacting me about wildlife conservation and animal welfare.
We are a nation of animal lovers, and I share your high regard for animal welfare. In addition, I would like to assure you that I recognise the importance of protecting nature. I am grateful for you sharing with me Born Free's campaign and their manifesto for transforming wildlife protection in the UK. I note that the manifesto seeks to raise a variety of animal welfare and conservation issues.
For example, it seeks to make all wildlife crime notifiable, recordable and enforceable. While I appreciate that if a non-notifiable wildlife crime is reported to police it can still be investigated, the last Government kept under review any legislative proposals to increase the range of wildlife crimes that have notifiable status. It is unclear if the new Government will continue with this approach.
It also raises the issue of trophy hunting. I appreciate the strength of feeling around this issue. As you may know, in the previous Parliament, a Private Members' Bill was introduced to ban the import of hunting trophies from around 6,000 species, including lions, elephants, rhinos, and polar bears. Sadly, despite the overwhelming support from MPs and the public, the Bill failed to pass before the general election. I note that the new Government committed in the Labour manifesto to ban the import of hunting trophies and I will hold them accountable to this pledge. Likewise, the manifesto also committed to ban trail hunting.
Born Free's manifesto raises further issues including exotic animals as pets, badger culling and the welfare of some animals in zoos. As you may know, the last Government's Action Plan for Animal Welfare outlined how the last Government would increase protections for kept wild animals by ending the low-welfare practice of keeping primates as pets, improve standards in zoos, and enhance conservation. The new Government's position on these issues remains unclear and I hope that clarification is provided as soon as possible so that the work of the last Government is not undone.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
