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Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

I shall try to deal briefly with new clause 6. We addressed a similar issue in Committee—or to be more precise, the Liberal Democrats did so—and it is right that it should be considered a little further. New clause 6 deals with the need to control invasive non-native species. Of course, not all non-native species are bad. I can cite species such as the rabbit, the fallow deer and the pheasant, none of which are native to this country. They have been here for hundreds of years, but they are not native and, with the possible exception of the rabbit, no one would argue that they were bad. There are many other examples. New clause 6(2) relates to situations where there"““is an actual or potential threat to the conservation of flora or fauna””." There are certain examples where that is clearly an issue. Interestingly and very topically, the ruddy duck has been mentioned in today’s paper. The north American ruddy duck, which was originally introduced to Britain, is now to be culled in Spain because it has flown there and mated with a local species, producing a hybrid that threatens the original. That is a clear example of an invasive non-native species causing a problem.