Extract from Westminster
Hall debate on Wildlife Crime
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs (Dr Thérèse Coffey):...The unit’s
funding structure will continue until the end of the comprehensive
spending review cycle. Decisions on funding beyond 2020 will be
taken at the next review, which is due to start this summer, as
right hon. and hon. Members will know. I cannot say any more at
this stage, but as the hon. Member for Workington (Sue Hayman)
noted, my right. hon Friend the Secretary of State is very
committed to this important unit. I am pleased that wildlife crime
seems to be an increasing priority for many of our Police
and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales.
There are six UK wildlife crime priorities: badger persecution,
bat persecution, the illegal trade in species protected by the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,
freshwater pearl mussels, poaching and raptor persecution.
Wildlife crime priorities are set by the UK wildlife crime
tasking and co-ordination group, which is chaired by the chief
constable wildlife crime lead. Priority areas are either those
that are assessed as posing the greatest threat to the
conservation status of a species, or that show a high volume of
crime and require a UK-wide tactical response. Each priority has
an implementation plan—with plan owners identified—to prevent
wildlife crime, improve intelligence gathering and strengthen
enforcement of the law.
Raptor persecution is one of the UK’s wildlife crime priorities.
All wild birds are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside
Act 1981, and there are strong penalties for those
committing offences. In the five years up to 2017—the latest year
for which data is available—there were 107 prosecutions for
crimes against wild birds and 75 convictions. The police are
leading efforts to prevent the persecution of birds of prey. I
praise the work done by North Yorkshire police, particularly on
Operation Owl, and I commend police and crime commissioner Julie
Milligan in particular. She has been fundamental not only in that
work, but in chairing the rural group of Police and Crime Commissioners, she has also
made hare coursing a key priority for work across a number of
forces....
...On enforcement, it is important to remember that the
enforcement of all offences, including wildlife offences, is an
operational matter for the police. It is not only for individual
chief constables to determine how their resources are deployed,
but for locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners to
hold their forces to account and to set priorities, including on
how they tackle the crimes that matter most to residents and
businesses in rural and urban areas alike. However, the
Government are taking steps to ensure that the enforcement of
wildlife protection legislation achieves the best possible
outcomes for wildlife through the expertise hosted by the
National Wildlife Crime Unit and the involvement of the National
Police Chiefs’ Council...
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Extract from Lords
debate on the Spring Statement 2019
The Minister of State, Department for International
Development (Lord Bates) (Con):...The noble Lords, Lord
, and , all raised the issue of
serious violence. Police forces are already due to receive an
additional £970 million from April. Police and Crime Commissioners have
committed to using this funding to recruit and train an extra
2,800 police officers. In addition, the Chancellor announced a
package of £100 million additional funding. Of this, £80 million
is new funding, which takes the total additional funding for
policing this year to in excess of £1 billion...
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