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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to introduce predator control as part of the work to secure the future of the Curlew.

As a signatory of the African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbird Agreement, we are taking a leading role in the implementation of an international plan to address the conservation status of the curlew. The plan includes a requirement for land management techniques that reduce levels of nest and chick predation to those associated with stable populations. Predator control already takes place to support conservation of curlew, including for example, as part of normal farming and gamekeeping practice.