Written question asked by Philip Dunne (Conservative) on Thursday, 10 May 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 14 May 2007. It was answered by Barry Gardiner (Labour) on Thursday, 17 May 2007 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Pests

Question: (2) what assessment was made of the grey squirrel against the criteria used to draw up the Environment Agency’s list of the top 10 worst invasive pests.

Answer: The main criterion in drawing up the Environment Agency’s (EA) list of the top 10 worst invasive pests was the impact that a particular non-native invasive species has on the EA’s activities and responsibilities. In November 2005, a questionnaire survey asked all 26 of the EA’s area teams to identify species that were having an impact and to rank the top 10 using a simple scoring system (one to 10). The overall top 10 list was derived from the aggregate scores across the EA as a whole.The grey squirrel does not impact on EA activities and responsibilities. Therefore, it did not feature in the list.

Secondary information