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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of China's recent decision to close its domestic ivory trade.

We were pleased to hear of China’s announcement to end its domestic commercial ivory trade in 2017. We look forward to seeing further detail on China’s measures, including understanding the nature of provisions for auctioning certified ivory ‘relics’ and how China plans to implement and enforce the new measures.

In September last year, the Environment Secretary announced a ban on trade in worked ivory from the last 70 years, making the UK rules on ivory amongst the toughest in the world. We will consult on these plans.