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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the welfare implications of ther baiting of electrified fences used to keep animals in or out of defined areas.

In England, wildlife is protected by law through legislation such as the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017.

Section 11 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 prohibits certain methods of killing or taking wild animals. Under subsection 2(c), a person will be guilty of an offence if they set in position any electrical device for killing or stunning, calculated to cause bodily injury to any wild animal included in Schedule 6 of that Act, such as badgers and hedgehogs. It is also an offence under regulation 45 of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 to use electrical and electronic devices capable of killing or stunning, for the purpose of capturing or killing a European protected species, or for any of the protected species listed on Schedule 4 of those Regulations.

The Government has not made a specific assessment of the welfare implications of the baiting of electrified fences.