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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle hare coursing.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England and Wales only.

This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation. That is exactly what we will do, and we will be outlining more detail in due course.

The previous Government made changes to address illegal hare coursing through a package of measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This broadened the circumstances in which police can investigate and bring charges for hare coursing related activity.

We plan to work with the police to ensure they can enforce the laws set out in the legislation.