To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will list imported reptiles by (a) wild caught, (b) captive bred and (c) ranched CITES listed categories imported into the EU in 2006. (172698)

The number of:

(a) wild caught CITES listed reptiles imported into the EU in 2006 was 57,194;

(b) captive bred CITES listed reptiles imported into the EU in 2006 was 188,924;

(c) ranched CITES listed reptiles imported into the EU in 2006 was 68,764.

This leaves 95,059 reptiles from other sources of which by far the largest proportion was those where the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) database shows no source code.

The UK does not hold records on imports of non-CITES species into the EU.