Written question asked by Earl Peel (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Bach (Labour) on Monday, 30 January 2006.

Squirrels

Question: In which places in the United Kingdom grey squirrel controls have been deemed successful.

Answer: We have limited information on the success of squirrel control on private land as there is no requirement on landowners to report their squirrel control activities. Where control is undertaken using good practice it is most likely to succeed, but this is not always the case.In England, the Forestry Commission recently reviewed its grant-supported grey squirrel control and concluded that the level of support available to individual owners was insufficient to ensure that control met good practice standards and brought in question success in terms of damage control.The recently published Grey Squirrels and England’s Woodlands policy and action statement aims to address this issue by targeting existing resources in areas where they are most needed and at a level that will help to enable good practice to be followed.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 3524; 678 c17WA
Session: 2005-06
Related items: Deposited Paper DEP 06/280
Friday, 20 January 2006
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects: Pest control Squirrels
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk