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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will take steps with Natural England to ensure duplication of submitted evidence and material is not required by applicants for licenses to breed and sell captive bred birds in line with Natural England's Framework Document 2017.

Natural England's licensing system, including for captive birds, is designed to avoid duplication where possible. Where an applicant is asked to provide information that is similar or largely the same as previous applications this will be because circumstances or underlying evidence may have changed.