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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to prevent online sales of illegal ivory.

The National Wildlife Crime Unit assists law enforcers in their investigations and helps prevent and detect wildlife crime, including cybercrime related to the illegal sale of ivory.

The issue of online sales was raised in response to our recent consultation on banning UK sales of ivory. We are considering this carefully, along with other issues, in developing the Government’s response to the consultation.

Several online retailers have voluntarily banned the sale of ivory online.