Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the amount of resources available to police forces to investigate wildlife crime.

Wildlife crime can have devastating consequences for our natural environments and countryside communities. This Government is committed to reducing crime, including in rural areas, and anyone exploiting or deliberately harming British wildlife should face the full force of the law.

This financial year, we are continuing to fund the National Wildlife Crime Unit who provide intelligence, analysis and investigative assistance to forces and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime.

Additionally, the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee will ensure that every community in England and Wales will have named and contactable officers dealing with local issues, and that neighbourhood teams spend the majority of their time in their communities providing visible patrols and engaging with local communities and businesses.