Environment Protection: Prosecutions
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking with the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute environmental crimes.
Answered by Emma Hardy
Environmental crimes and prosecutions are generally undertaken by the Environment Agency (EA) as the Environmental Regulator and not by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The CPS does prosecute some particular environmental crimes, for the police's National Wildlife Crime Unit, such as in relation to poaching and even CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Where appropriate, and where there is linked offending, the EA can coordinate investigations into suspected environmental offending with other bodies, including the police.
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