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.

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.