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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when her Department plans to bring forward new Control of Trade in Endangered Species Regulations.

We fully intend to bring forward amendments to, and the consolidation of, the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (COTES) Regulations following on from the consultation we undertook earlier this year. Related to this we are currently exploring whether any further amendments may be required to COTES, in particular as a result of the proposal announced on 21 September to ban sales of ivory less than seventy years old. Our intention is that the amended COTES Regulations will be laid in 2017, subject to the outcome of the ivory consultation due to be launched in the New Year.