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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to protect the habitat of woodcock birds.

We are expanding and improving woodcock habitat through grant schemes funded by both the Countryside Stewardship scheme and the Nature for Climate Fund. These grants include the Woods into Management Forestry Innovation Funds, which aim to restore vulnerable woodland habitats and improve biodiversity, as well as the England Woodland Creation Offer. In addition, we are introducing new environmental land management schemes, which will pay for activities to create, manage and restore habitats such as woodland, connect isolated habitats to form networks, and other species management actions, all of which will benefit birds such as woodcock.

Woodcock also benefit from England’s extensive network of protected sites for wildlife such as sites of special scientific interest.