Wildlife Crime
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 24/2084
Version Date: 25/06/2024
The Performance Analysis Department have provided the following information:
Under Freedom of Information Act/Environmental Information Regulations, I would like to request the following information from between the dates;
1st January 2021 through to 31st December 2021 inclusive
1st January 2022 through to 31st December 2022 inclusive.
1st January 2023 through to 31st December 2023 inclusive
1. During the time frames, how many crimes involved the illegal killing of birds of prey?
2. What species of bird of prey have been investigated as being killed?
3. During these time frames, how many crimes involved other birds, and what species of bird were involved?
I would like you to provide this information in email format, giving the date, the type of crime, Raptor illegal killing / other bird, illegal killing. The type of bird and suspected method,
Supplying the data requested below is not straightforward because offences involving the killing of wild birds are not all notifiable as crimes, so there isn’t Home Office code that can be researched to obtain results. Instead, the list of offences below is obtained from a mix of home office codes for recordable offences, arrest codes that relate to killing birds and a review of a master occurrence that was created back in 2021 to record bird killings at a time when there were a number being found. Whilst the data has been run for 2021 through to 2023, there are no relevant records for 2023.
|
Occurrence Reported Date |
Offence description (where relevant) |
Species |
Suspected method of killing |
|
27/01/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
White tailed eagle |
Poisoning |
|
27/01/2021 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Mallard & Moorhen |
Catapult |
|
08/03/2021 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Pigeon |
Catapult |
|
26/03/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
Buzzard |
Poisoning |
|
01/04/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
Sparrowhawk |
Natural causes |
|
02/04/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
Buzzard |
Unknown |
|
03/04/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
Owl & Buzzard |
Poisoning |
|
03/04/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
Kestrel |
Unknown - potential natural causes |
|
06/04/2021 |
Non-notifiable offence |
Sparrowhawk |
Unknown |
|
16/04/2021 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Magpie |
Catapult then beating |
|
20/04/2021 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Gull |
Catapult |
|
28/04/2021 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Duck |
Kicking |
|
29/04/2021 |
Use trap to kill or take a wild bird (recordable) |
Duck |
Air rifle |
|
30/07/2021 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Kestrel |
Poisoning |
|
10/05/2022 |
Use weapon to kill / take a wild bird (recordable) |
Pigeons |
Airgun |
|
27/09/2022 |
Kill a non-Schedule 1 wild bird (recordable) |
Pigeon |
Catapult |