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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of great crested newts in England in each year since 2007.

Great crested newt populations show large natural fluctuations and it is not possible or appropriate to estimate the actual numbers. Instead, great crested newts are monitored by assessing the number of ponds that they occupy. In 2011 it was estimated that there were approximately 53,720 occupied ponds.