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 support the conservation of red squirrels.

This Government is committed to taking action to recover our threatened native species and delivering our legally binding biodiversity targets on species abundance, species extinction and habitat creation and restoration, which will benefit many of our priority native species including red squirrels.

The leading causes of red squirrel decline in England include the squirrel pox virus, habitat availability and competition from non-native grey squirrels. We are considering how to go further to reduce the impacts of grey squirrels on our woodlands and red squirrel populations and shall have an update in due course.