To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will make it his policy to give equal consideration to native and non-native species in exercising his powers on species to be added to and removed from the list of species in Schedule 4 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; and if he will make a statement. (197008)

In view of the EU-wide import ban on wild birds and sales controls under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, I announced in Westminster Hall on 23 January that non-native species would not be considered for retention on or addition to schedule 4 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

No decision has yet been taken on which native species should remain on or be added to schedule 4.