Member

I acknowledge that, over the past year, police chiefs and Ministers have begun work on recognising what farmers and villagers have known for a long time—that rural crime is serious, organised and damaging. We welcome the three-year rural wildlife crime strategy, which rightly identifies priority areas for machine theft, livestock worrying, illegal hunting and poaching, and the need to protect our species and wildlife. The Government have committed funding to keep the national rural crime unit and the national wildlife crime unit going, and we welcome that. These are positive moves but they are not enough.