To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on current research into biological methods of controlling bracken.

My Department is aware of research by Professor Lawton of Imperial college at Silwood Park with a non-indigenous moth, Conservula cinsigna, which has a bracken-feeding caterpillar. Professor Lawton has applied for a licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, to release the moth in outdoor cages on the college premises. The application is under consideration.