PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Birds of Prey: Tagging (23 November 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on determining the reasons for the disappearance of raptors satellite tagged by Natural England.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

Any hen harriers tagged by Natural England which disappear are immediately reported to the police for further investigation. Any hen harrier corpse which is recovered by Natural England is submitted for a full post-mortem.

Natural England’s satellite tracking data, including last fix locations of tagged birds is currently being analysed independently to enable publication of the data next year.

The National Wildlife Crime Unit, which is jointly funded by Defra and the Home Office, works closely with Natural England and key partners to investigate raptor disappearances and tackle illegal persecution.

Answered by:
Dr Thérèse Coffey (Conservative)
1 December 2017