To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what requirements the Forestry Commission has made of hunts to ensure that they continue efforts to achieve successful drag hunting with chemical-only based scents; (101265)

The Forestry Commission will review the effectiveness of the terms and conditions in its agreements with the Masters of Foxhounds Association and the Masters of Bloodhounds and Draghounds Association at the end of the season. These bodies are aware that their members' efforts to find and successfully use chemical scents will be one of the issues considered by the Commission in this review and that only after this review will the Commission consider granting any further agreement.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which chemical only based scents the Forestry Commission has been encouraging hunts to use when drag hunting. (101268)

The terms and conditions in the Forestry Commission's agreement with the Masters of Bloodhounds and Draghounds Association and the Masters of Foxhounds Association does not specify which chemical only based scents should be used. The choice of scents used and tested is left to the hunts, subject to the restrictions imposed in the agreement.