It is really important we tackle wildlife crime, which is any activity that goes against legislation protecting the UK's wild animals and plants. Wildlife crime can have significant detrimental consequences to communities and livelihoods, not to mention the potential pain and suffering to animals, which is why the last Government took steps to directly fund the National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) to tackle these crimes.
The NWCU provides intelligence, analysis, and investigative assistance to the police and other law enforcement agencies across the UK to support them in investigating wildlife crime. This includes handling cases referred by Border Force to the National Crime Agency or individual police forces. The NWCU is also the UK policing focal point for EUROPOL and INTERPOL wildlife crime activity.
The NWCU uses this information to produce strategic and tactical assessments of wildlife crime across the UK. These assessments also take into consideration the views of the Wildlife Crime Conservation Advisory Group, which highlights priorities based on the conservation status of specific species and reviews all other non-priority intelligence to identify emerging threats. It is these assessments that ultimately drive the operational response to tackling wildlife crime in the UK.
I understand that, while the last Government committed to keeping under review any legislative proposals to increase the range of wildlife crimes that have notifiable status, the current Labour Government has stated: "There are no plans currently to make all wildlife crimes notifiable and consequentially to include them in the national crime statistics." I would note that if a non-notifiable wildlife crime is reported to the police, it can still be investigated. Chief Constables have operational independence to tackle the crimes that matter most to their communities.
However, any case of cruelty towards any animal is completely unacceptable and I would fully welcome prosecutions against anyone found to have caused unnecessary suffering to an animal. As you may already know, under the provisions in the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, The Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 and Animal Welfare Act 2006, there are a range of offences around injuring and inflicting unnecessary suffering on wildlife.
In addition, the last Conservative Government's Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 fulfilled its commitment to increase the sentences available to our courts for the most serious cases of animal cruelty, including acts against wildlife, by raising the maximum penalty for this offence to five years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. New measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act came into force on 1st August 2022, which empowered and equipped the police and courts with the powers they need to combat hare coursing. The precise sentencing of individuals convicted of wildlife crimes is, however, a matter for judges, which is rightly the case given judicial independence.
To ensure wildlife crime can be policed effectively, we do need to have a sufficient number of officers. It is why the Conservative Party has set out proposals to hire 10,000 new police officers over three years. In contrast, the current Labour Government has seen a decrease of over 1,300 officers compared to September 2024. Allowing officer numbers to decrease is a weak approach to dealing with crime and enables people to get away with committing offences, including wildlife crime.
Ultimately, we need to protect our rural communities, and a critical element of that is ensuring that those who commit crimes, breaking the law and undermining our communities, face legal consequences.
As always, if you believe that someone has broken the law in relation to hares, badgers, or indeed any other animal, I would urge you to report the matter to the police who can investigate further.
