§ Mr. HardyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what assumptions he has made about the origin of birds in his calculation of the numbers of captive birds of prey in the United Kingdom;
(2) what proportion of captive birds of prey in the United Kingdom were (a) bred in captivity, (b) illegally imported and (c) taken unlawfully from the wild.
§ Mr. BaldrySection 7 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act requires that all captive birds of the species listed in schedule 4 are registered with my Department. A prerequisite of registration is the provision of details of the origin of the bird. Over 75 per cent. of registered captive birds of prey were bred in captivity. Evidence that birds may have been illegally imported or taken unlawfully from the wild is passed to the enforcement authorities. No estimate is available of unregistered birds illegally held.