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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with (a) devolved administrations and (b) local communities on the potential merits of providing (i) funding and (ii) funding through the (A) Shared Prosperity Fund and (B) other environmental or rural development mechanisms to support the reintroduction of (1) beavers, (2) pine martens, (3) elk and (4) golden eagles in Wales.

Defra has not had discussions with devolved administrations and local communities on the potential merits of providing funding to Wales to support the reintroduction of beavers, pine martens, elk, and golden eagles. This is because this is a devolved matter, and funding is therefore the responsibility of the Welsh Government.

Natural England, NatureScot and Natural Resources Wales meet quarterly to discuss all species reintroductions projects in their respective countries including beavers. The agencies have an informal agreement to consult each other for any proposal that would impact cross-border. This has already been done for pine marten and white-tailed eagle reintroductions.

Regarding beaver reintroductions, the agencies consult with each other on licence applications near borders. For the English licensing scheme, licence applicants are required to consult Natural Resources Wales or NatureScot as well as impacted cross-border stakeholders prior to submitting an application to Natural England. Natural England will then carry out their own formal cross-agency consultation once the licence application has been received.