Efforts to control the ruddy duck will receive new legal force under Law Commission proposals.

The commission is recommending that bodies such as the Environment Agency and Forestry Commission have the power to issue species control orders to require landowners and occupiers to eradicate plants or animals identified as non-native and invasive. Breaching a species control order would be a criminal offence.

Control of Invasive Non-native Species is the first report from the commission’s wildlife project, due to be completed late this year.

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