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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to take action on illegal hare coursing.

Measures to address hare coursing were included in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act that gained Royal Assent on 29 April this year. Hare coursing causes considerable distress to farmers, landowners and rural communities, in addition to the suffering it causes animals.

Our new legislation introduces two new criminal offences relating to activity connected with hare coursing and increases the powers of the courts to deal with offenders upon conviction. We have significantly increased the maximum penalties available upon conviction for offences under the existing and new legislation including, for the first time, the possibility of custodial sentences.

These measures will come into force on 1 August this year ahead of the start of the next hare coursing season.