§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the number of inspectors in his Voluntary Inspectorate for inspecting registered keepers of birds of prey.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe current number of part time ornithological wildlife inspectors is almost 200.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will detail the cases that came to court in which his Department gave information against registered breeders of birds of prey.
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§ Mr. Waldegrave90 witness statements were provided by the Department to enforcement agencies during 1984 but not all these necessarily came to court.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is his estimate of the number of each of the protected raptors;
(2) what is his estimate of each of the protected raptors in England and Wales; and if these numbers are increasing or decreasing.
§ Mr. WaldegraveMy Department does not keep these statistics, but I am advised by the Nature Conservancy Council that the most recent available estimates are:
Raptors Number Estimate Common Buzzard 12,000 pairs Increasing Honey Buzzard 4–10 pairs Stable Golden Eagle 4–500 pairs Increasing Goshawk 70 pairs Increasing slowly Marsh harrier 25 pairs Increasing Hen harrier 600 pairs Stable Montagu's Harrier 2–9 pairs Decreasing Hobby 100–180 pairs Stable Kestrel 70,000 pairs Stable Merlin 3–400 pairs Decreasing Peregrine 8–900 pairs Increasing Red Kite 46 pairs Stable Sparrowhawk 20,000 pairs Increasing Osprey 25–30 pairs Stable Separate estimates for England, Scotland and Wales are not available.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what is the number of (a) golden eagles, (b) goshawks, (c) merlins, (d) peregrine falcons and (e) other raptors held by registered breeders;
(2) what is the number of each protected raptors kept by registered keepers in 1984;
(3) how many registered breeders and keepers there are of (a) golden eagle, (b) the goshawk, (c) the merlin, (d) the peregrine falcon and (e) other raptors; and how many of each bird was (i) bred and (ii) kept in 1984.
§ Mr. WaldegraveBreeders as such are not registered but the following are the numbers of birds recorded as held by keepers in Great Britain.
Total Kept Not bred in 1984 (a) Golden Eagle 41 1 (b) Goshawk 473 38 (c) Merlin 153 35 (d) Peregrine 523 43 (e) Other raptors 5,931 888 Separate records are not maintained for England, Scotland and Wales. Data are still being verified from the re-registration period which commenced on 1 September 1984.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many raptors were released into the wild by registered breeders in 1984.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe total number of raptors released to the wild in 1984 was 103, of which 29 were captive bred.
§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the number of prosecutions in the latest period for which figures are available of those charged with robbing the nest of the protected raptors.
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§ Mr. WaldegraveI refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 31 January 1985, at column 280.