(2) what steps he is taking to protect the bottlenose dolphin.
All cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 which makes it an offence to intentionally kill or injure cetaceans. The Government strengthened the protection given to cetaceans through the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 which introduced a new offence of recklessly disturbing cetaceans. The first successful conviction under the Act was in December 2007.
All cetaceans are also listed under Annex IVa of the Council Directive (92/43/EEC) on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora (the Habitats Directive), as species in need of strict protection. This directive is transposed into UK law by the Conservation (Natural Habitats &c.) Regulations 1994, protecting cetaceans from deliberate killing and capture.
The UK is also a Party to ASCOBANS—the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North seas—which aims to restore and/or maintain biological or management stocks of small cetaceans at the level they would reach when there is the lowest possible anthropogenic influence and proposes to reach these aims through co-ordinating and implementing conservation measures for small cetaceans.
We realise that the by-catch of cetaceans in some fisheries can be a problem. In an attempt to reduce fisheries by-catch DEFRA and the devolved administrations’ fisheries departments published the UK Small Cetacean By-catch Response Strategy in March 2003. An update on the progress of implementing the strategy can be found at:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/marine/fisheries/conservation/cetaceans.htm
As part of this strategy, the UK Government spent around £1.6 million from 2000-05 on research into cetacean by-catch caused by fishing effort and measures to mitigate against by-catch.
This matter is within the devolved responsibility of the Scottish Executive. The hon. Gentleman may wish to write to the Executive about this matter.