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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bellamy on 21 March (HL3214) what assessment has been made of the drop in prosecutions for poaching in England, from 107 in 2019 to 34 in 2023.

The Government recognises the problems and distress which poaching can cause for local communities. Tackling it is one of the UK's national wildlife crime priorities.

The number of prosecutions for poaching in England can vary year from year due to a number of factors. For example, the levels of hare coursing, an abhorrent form of poaching, can be affected by the suitability of local ground conditions during a hare coursing ‘season’. If it is too wet, there is an increased risk that the vehicles used to facilitate coursing might get stuck in fields where hares are found so the activity is less likely to be carried out. If it is too dry, the dogs used by coursers are at an increased risk of injury. The numbers of prosecutions in a local area will also depend on effective enforcement. The level of resourcing assigned to tackle poaching may vary year from year depending on decisions taken by local police forces.

The difference in prosecutions between 2019 and 2023 might also have been affected by a key change in legislation. The 2019 figure provided by the Ministry of Justice in its answer of 21 March (HL3214) is from a time prior to the enactment of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022. This legislation increased police powers and sentences for a number of hare coursing offences. It is reasonable to suspect it had a deterrent effect on potential offenders and offences that may have led to prosecution. In combination with this new legislation, improved police tactics, intelligence and information sharing as well as the use of community protection notices and criminal behaviour orders may also have had an impact on recent poaching prosecution numbers. Finally, it must be noted that the 2023 figure of 34 used in the Lord Bishop’s question is not consistent with the other years as it only includes prosecutions for the months from January to June rather than, as with the years being compared with it, the full calendar year.