Minister Therese Coffey reaffirms pledge to ban hunting trophy imports

Ministers are "working hard" to pass a law banning the import of animal body parts, known as hunting trophies, the Environment Secretary has said.

Therese Coffey gave the assurance with the bill facing a race against time to become law before the current parliamentary session ends in November.

Concerns have also been raised about opponents of the legislation in the House of Lords using "underhand tactics" to wreck it.

It would not apply in Northern Ireland.

In a letter to the Humane Society International/UK, Ms Coffey said: "It is a manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals and we are working hard to deliver.

"The bill passed the Commons in March, with the government's support, and we will do all we can to support its progress through the House of Lords."

The legislation applies to body parts from endangered species that would not be allowed into Great Britain following hunting expeditions overseas.

It is now in the House of Lords where it cleared its first legislative hurdle in June.

Supporters had hoped it would proceed smoothly, without much further debate, into law.

But some peers oppose the legislation, saying it represents a "triumph of emotion over reason" that could have "unintended consequences".

Conservative Lord Manston has proposed amendments that he said would "clean up" or clarify "badly drafted" parts of the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill.

The impact will be to prolong the legislative process because time has to be set aside to debate and vote on amendments.

If any changes are approved by the Lords, the government must then allocate time for them to be approved or rejected in the Commons.

The measure is a private member's bill, which means it is sponsored by an MP and not the government.

It was introduced in the Commons by Conservative Henry Smith, who told the BBC the "biggest threat" was time.

He said some peers were using "underhand tactics" to delay the bill, but he didn't think their amendments would be voted through.

"My argument would be this is a manifesto commitment, it's got support across the elected House, it featured in quite a few of the other parties' manifestos as well and the best way would be to allow this private member's bill to complete its passage," he added.

The government had control of Parliament's time, he said, and should ensure it made some available for the bill to pass.

Time is in short supply because there are not many parliamentary weeks left in this session of Parliament, before it ends to make way for a new session triggered by the King's Speech on 7 November.

Generally, legislation that does not get through before that deadline falls away.

Parliament is currently on its summer recess but will return on 4 September for three weeks.

It will break again for the party conference season and return on 16 October when there will be only a few weeks left of the parliamentary session.

It is up to the government to decide how to use parliamentary time and, at the moment, it has not set any aside for the Lords to debate amendments to the Hunting Trophies Bill.

There is also a backlog of legislation awaiting scrutiny in the Lords, including the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill.

But in her letter, Ms Coffey said the government would not be supporting any further amendments to the bill and expected the committee stage, when amendments are discussed, to progress next month.

Claire Bass, senior director of campaigns and public affairs at Humane Society International/UK, said: "There is a small and vocal group of pro-hunting peers doing their best to wreck this bill, but we need the government to remain focused on the almost 90% of the public who want this ban on the import of hunting trophies.

"The timing for this Bill is indeed extremely tight but we were encouraged to receive a letter from Environment Secretary Therese Coffey yesterday."