Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will (a) place funding for the national wildlife crime unit on a permanent basis and (b) allocate to that unit sufficient funding to support the effective investigation of wildlife crimes.

The Home Office is providing funding of £136,000 to support the work of the National Wildlife Crime Unit in 2020/21. This will be in addition to the funding central Government is providing to police forces in England and Wales to tackle all types of crime, including wildlife crime.

Decisions about Home Office funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2021 will be taken as part of the Spending Review.