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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust's findings in the document entitled A future for curlew that the curlew population declined by 17 per cent. per year without legal predator control and increased by 14 per cent. per year with legal predator control.

The management of predators, such as foxes and carrion crows, plays an important role in supporting the recovery of some of our most vulnerable species, particularly ground nesting birds including the curlew.

We have recently published an update on environmental land management schemes which confirms that we are exploring how actions to do with managing predatory species - when those species are impacting threatened species recovery - will be made available.