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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to ensure that all police forces have access to adequate (a) training and (b) resources to (i) identity, (ii) record and (iii) investigate wildlife crime.

Defra is a principal funder of the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU). In 2025/26, it is providing £424,000 to the Unit. The NWCU helps prevent and detect wildlife crime by obtaining and disseminating intelligence, undertaking analysis which highlights local or national threats and directly assisting law enforcers in their investigations. Last year, the NWCU assisted every single police force in the UK. The NWCU also provides training to police officers across the UK which reflects the National Police Chiefs' Council wildlife crime strategy and provides comprehensive training in wildlife crime policing. This is open to UK police forces and, as an example, all English police forces had at least one officer trained on an NWCU module in 2023/24.