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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to support the conservation of mountain hares.

This Government is committed to restoring and protecting nature. We will deliver for nature by taking action to meet our Environment Act targets, working in partnership with civil society, communities and businesses to restore and protect our natural world. Later this year we will publish a revised Environmental Improvement Plan which will set out how we will meet our ambitious Environment Act targets.

Defra Ministers support the ambition to introduce a close season for hares in England. England and Wales stand out as being among the few European countries not to have a close season for their resident hares. A close season should reduce the number of adult hares being shot in the breeding season, meaning that fewer leverets (infant hares) are left motherless and vulnerable to starvation and predation.