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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 4 June 2019 (HL15826) and following the inception of the Raptor Persecution Priority Group, how that group will measure its success; and how many prosecutions have been mounted for the unlawful killing of hen harriers.

The Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group is a police, rather than Government, led group. The group’s objectives are supported by a tactical delivery plan which sets out targeted measurable actions to reduce raptor persecution in England and Wales.

Ministry of Justice data shows that between 2013 and 2018 there were 98 prosecutions for offences against birds under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. It is not possible to break this data down by species.