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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are considering a total ban on ivory sales in the light of the announcement by the government of China that they intend to introduce a full ban within 12 months.

We were pleased to hear of China’s announcement that it will end its domestic commercial ivory trade in 2017. We look forward to seeing further detail on China’s measures, including understanding the nature of provisions for auctioning certified ivory ‘relics’ and how China plans to implement the new measures.

We are committed to bringing an end to elephant poaching and in September 2016, the Secretary of State for Environment announced proposals for a ban on trade in worked ivory from the last 70 years, which would make UK rules on ivory amongst the toughest in the world. We will shortly be consulting on these plans. At the same time we will be calling for evidence on what more we can do to tackle this issue, including how we best enforce this ban.

We are doing more than ever to tackle the illegal wildlife trade, including investing £26 million to help bring an end to this cruel trade.