Annual Prosecutions & Convictions for Wildlife Offences, England & Wales
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishes statistics on prosecutions and convictions for wildlife offences under various pieces of legislation:(27)
- Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
- Deer Act 1991
- Protection of Badgers Act 1991
- Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996
- Hunting Act 2004
Data is available for England and Wales between 2013 and 2017 (the 2018 data is scheduled to be released in May 2019). During this period, there were 585 prosecutions and 323 convictions for offences under these laws.
In 2017, the latest full year of data, there were 71 prosecutions for these offences. This was lower than in previous years, particularly in comparison to 2013, when there were 180 prosecutions for these offences.
In 2017, 52 of the prosecutions were under the Hunting Act 2004, 6 under the Deer Act 1991 and 6 under the Protection of Badgers Act 1996.
Prosecutions under the Hunting Act 2004 include a breakdown by specific offence. The majority of prosecutions over the last five years (2013-17) were for ‘hunting a wild mammal with a dog’, and the remaining prosecutions were mainly for ‘participating in or attending a hare coursing event’.
The annual figures in included in table 1
Note that these statistics provide only a partial view of prosecutions for wildlife crime. This is because they only show the principal offence, which is the most severe offence for which a defendant is prosecuted or convicted. If a defendant is, for example, convicted of a wildlife crime and another offence with a harsher sentence, the wildlife crime will not show up in the main statistics.
Source: Ministry of Justice Experimental statistics: Principal offence proceedings and outcomes by Home Office offence code data tool
Notes: a) The figures presented relate to defendants for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe
b) Offences under Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 are ‘schedule 5 and schedule 6 – killing, injuring or taking certain wild animals’; offences under the Protection of Badgers Act are ‘offences of cruelty to badgers and special protection for badgers and their setts’; the offence under Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 is ‘cruelty to a wild
c) There were no prosecutions for ‘Knowingly facilitating a hare coursing event’, ‘Permitting land to be used for the purpose of a hare coursing event’, ‘Entering a dog for a hare coursing event’, ‘Permitting a dog to be entered for a hare coursing event’, or ‘Controlling or handling a dog at a hare coursing event’ – also offences under Hunting Act 2004.
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