Written question asked by Mark Pritchard (Conservative) on Monday, 1 November 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 3 November 2010. It was answered by Lord Benyon (Conservative) on Monday, 8 November 2010 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Otters

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps she is taking to maintain the habitat of wild otters.

Answer: Pollution control and river management works carried out by the Environment Agency with water companies, wildlife trusts, local rivers trusts and riparian landowners have helped to improve water quality and habitat structure in many rivers in England and Wales.Further habitat improvement and pollution prevention work, including land management incentives to tackle diffuse pollution, will help to make further improvements to the ecological status of rivers over the next few years. This should allow otters to continue their recovery, which has already seen an increase from occurrence at 5.8% of river sites in 1977-79 to 58.8% in 2009-10.

Secondary information