Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the implementation of the Ivory Act and the campaign by the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

I support the idea of a scheme for people to be able to surrender unwanted ivory products.

I also support the Ivory Act but I do not believe the Government’s promises have matched its rhetoric when faced with banning ivory imports. Action is needed to save animals from cruelty and extinction and, years on from the passing of the Ivory Act in 2018 with cross-party support, it is past time to bring in the ban on the ivory trade and to implement the legislation.

Without implementation the Act will not save the magnificent animals it was designed to protect, and we must be careful about using animal welfare as a reason to legislate but then not following through and enacting that legislation.

Following consultation in 2021, the Government has now stated it intends to legislate to implement the Ivory Act with plans for the ban to come into force in Spring 2022. It has also said it has no plans to create a surrender scheme. I will follow developments on these issues closely.

Additionally, it held a second consultation on expanding the range of species covered by the Ivory Act to include hippos, narwhals, killer whales, sperm whales and walruses. This consultation closed on 11 September 2021 and feedback is still being analysed.

I support this extension. However, at Report Stage during the passage of the legislation, the Opposition proposed doing exactly this, tabling an amendment to the Ivory Bill during the Report Stage which would have obliged the Government to extend protections to cover these species. It aimed not only to stop these species from becoming endangered, but to stop the focus on banning only elephant ivory and therefore push poachers towards other forms of ivory. The Government voted to defeat this amendment.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue. I can assure you I will continue to call for the Ivory Act to be implemented and to be extended to other species.

 Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP