February 2024
Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about trophy hunting.
I appreciate the strength of feeling around this issue.
In 2019, the Government held a consultation on the scale and impact of the import and export of hunting trophies. Over 44,000 responses to the call for evidence and consultation were received and 85 per cent of responses were in favour of further action. The Government’s response to the consultation set out plans to ban imports of hunting trophies from thousands of endangered and threatened species.
The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill was introduced to Parliament in June 2022, the last parliamentary session, as a Private Member’s Bill by Henry Smith MP to ban the import of hunting trophies from around 6,000 species, including lions, elephants, rhinos, and polar bears. My ministerial colleagues and I were very disappointed that despite the overwhelming support from MPs and the public, this Bill failed to progress through Committee stage in the House of Lords. I understand that accepting the amendments proposed by Peers would have totally undermined the Government’s important commitment in this area.
With best wishes,
Kind regards,
Jonathan Lord MP
Member of Parliament for Woking