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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department made of the potential impact of deer populations on rural environments.

Defra supports survey programmes that assess the ecological condition of woodlands in England. This includes the National Forest Inventory woodland ecological condition assessment, which indicated in 2020 that 40% of woodland habitat in unfavourable condition due to herbivore damage, including from deer. A further large-scale woodland survey, known as the Bunce survey, reported in 2024 that 33% of English woodlands are impacted by deer.

Defra funded an assessment of the cost of invasive non-native species to Great Britain in 2023 as part of the GB Invasive Non-native Species Strategy. This included invasive non-native species of deer and indicated that their impacts result in costs to society of around £47.7 million annually.

Defra provides a range of support to help manage deer impacts on woodlands. This includes grants for deer management, projects and capital items such as fencing, and funding a dedicated team of Deer Officers within the Forestry Commission to provide advice.