Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether police officers appointed as wildlife crime officers hold a range of other responsibilities.

The Government does not prescribe the nature or level of resources deployed by police forces to tackle wildlife crime. Whether wildlife crime officers focus solely on tackling wildlife crime, or hold a range of other responsibilities, are operational matters for police forces. It is for Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that forces’ priorities reflect those of their communities, and individual forces must have the flexibility to deploy their resources without Government interference.