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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to ban the import of animal trophies into the United Kingdom, particularly trophies from endangered species.

Under international rules set by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, a hunting trophy of an endangered species can only be exported if the exporting country is satisfied that the hunt was both legal and sustainable in terms of its impact on the overall population of the species in that country.

However, in light of growing concerns about the sustainability of the hunting of some species, we have worked within the EU to introduce stricter controls on the import of hunting trophies of particular species. This requires the importing country to also carry out an assessment of the sustainability of the hunt. In this way the import of hunting trophies of certain species from certain countries is currently prohibited by the EU.

The Government considers that properly managed, legal and sustainable trophy hunting can play a part in species conservation efforts, including providing an important source of funding for some countries. As such we have no plans to introduce legislation banning the import of all animal trophies, but we will continue to monitor the impact of trophy hunting and will work with the EU and our international partners to put in place greater protection, including prohibiting imports, where this is shown to be needed.