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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the Government's legislative proposals to ban the import and export of shark fins will include a ban on the import and export of shark fin products.

As set out in the recently published Action Plan for Animal Welfare we will be bringing in legislation to ban the import and export of detached shark fins.

We are making good progress with developing this legislation including consideration of the scope needed to ensure our measures are as effective as possible at delivering shark conservation benefits globally. These measures will demonstrate our continuing leadership on shark conservation issues and signal our strong opposition to any ongoing finning practices.