Alex Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the number of infractions of the Environmental Protection (Restriction of the Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999 in the last 15 years.

Rory Stewart

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that no defendants were proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences under the Environmental Protection (Restriction of the Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999 in England between 2011 and 2014.

This return relates to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. Up to and including 2010, these regulations were part of a miscellaneous grouping, which could only be separately analysed at disproportionate cost. Data for 2015 is not yet available.

In the last 12 months Defra has received:

• the Lead Ammunition Group report,
• a report submitted by those that resigned from the Lead Ammunition Group, and
• papers from the Oxford Lead Symposium.

The Government is considering this information and will respond as soon as possible.