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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is taking steps to help tackle the use of catapults by young people to harm pond wildlife in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Government takes crimes against wildlife seriously and is aware of the ongoing and horrific misuse of catapults against wildlife.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects all wild birds and some wild animals in England and Wales. It is illegal under this Act to deliberately attempt to kill, injure, or harm protected species of wild birds. There are a range of other offences found in further legislation to protect wild animals from cruelty such as the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Significant sanctions are available to judges to hand down to those convicted of crimes under these Acts.

While Defra will continue to keep relevant legislation under review, there are sufficient laws in place to protect wildlife from targeted use of catapults and existing powers are already available for the police to tackle their misuse. Defra therefore has no current plans to take further steps to tackle the use of catapults by young people to harm pond wildlife.