Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Robathan (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 17 July 2008 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Non-native Species

Question: I am grateful to my parliamentary neighbour, the hon. Member for Leicester, South (Sir Peter Soulsby), for raising this issue. I am sure the whole House will remember the Eradication of Mink Bill in 1995—or possibly not. The point is that mink destroy any good work done for water voles through the biodiversity action plan, because they eat them. Will the Government take action to eradicate mink, which are doing huge damage to wildlife across the country?

Answer: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that contribution. I recently visited a site that was conserving water voles; indeed, the Department is doing a considerable amount of work in that respect. Some measures for dealing with mink are already in place. I will look further into what the hon. Gentleman suggests, but I do not believe that an eradication programme is likely to be successful.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 479 c385
Session: 2007-08
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Commons chamber
Subjects: Conservation Nature conservation Mink Pest control Wildlife Water voles
Link: View this Oral question on www.publications.parliament.uk