PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Animal Welfare: Prosecutions (10 July 2014)
Question Asked
Asked by:
Emily Thornberry (Labour)
Answer
Prosecutions for dog-fighting and badger persecution are conducted under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and Protection of Badgers Act 1992 respectively. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number or prosecutions for ‘dog fighting’ conducted under the Animal Welfare Act. To obtain this information would require a manual file examination at disproportionate cost.
The number of offences charged under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 is as follows:
2009-2010 | 2010-2011 | 2011-2012 | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | ||
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 1(1) } Wilfully kill a badger |
| 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 0 |
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 1(1) } Attempt to kill a badger |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 1(1) } Attempt to takea badger |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 |
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 1(1) and 12 } Wilfully taking a badger |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 1(3) and 12 } Possess a dead / part of a dead badger |
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 2(1) and 12 } Digging for badgers |
| 0 | 0 | 8 | 18 | 6 |
Protection of Badgers Act 1992 { 3 } Interfering with badger setts |
| 18 | 23 | 24 | 38 | 19 |
Total | 24 | 26 | 43 | 70 | 31 | |
These are offences which reached a first hearing in the magistrates’ court and the substantive charge when the case was finalised may have been different. It does preclude the possibility that other offences relating to badgers may have been charged under other legislation.
Answered by:
Sir Robert Buckland (Conservative)
21 July 2014
Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.