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

What guidance his Department has issued to the Forestry Commission on deer culling.

Primary responsibility for deer management lies with local landowners. Defra and the Forestry Commission are members of the Deer Initiative Partnership which brings together land management and conservation organisations, with the shared goal of sustainable deer management. The Deer Initiative has produced guidance for deer managers. Defra has not issued specific guidance to the Forestry Commission, which has its own operating procedures for managing deer on the public forest estate.