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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 June 2016 to Question 40996, what statistics the Government collects on the number of hunting trophies from endangered or threatened species which are brought in to the UK; and how the Government defines the sustainable hunting of such species.

The UK Management Authority (UKMA), which administers the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), holds data on imports of hunting trophies into the UK from outside the EU of the most endangered species listed on Annex A of the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations and for six less endangered Annex B species which are subject to stricter controls.

As part of the application process for an import permit, the UKMA must consider whether the import would be harmful to the conservation of the species or on the extent of the territory it occupies. This is called a ‘non-detriment finding’. For animal imports, this determination is made by our scientific advisors, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, which considers any opinions of the EU’s group of scientific experts in CITES, the Scientific Review Group, and examines available data, taking into account a wide range of factors including the biological status of the species, management programmes in place and trade levels.

Information on how a non-detriment finding is made can be found in CITES Conference Resolution 16.7 (https://cites.org/eng/res/16/16-07.php) and the reference guide to the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/cites/legis_refguide_en.htm).