The PAW Pack
Mission Statement
PAW's Mission Statement is:
'Working in partnership to reduce wildlife crime by raising
awareness and promoting effective enforcement'
The aim of the partnership is to create opportunities to work together
to combat wildlife crime.
Membership
Membership of PAW is open to any non-Government organisation willing
to sign the Partnership's 'Statement of Commitment'.
This sets out its responsibilities to and the benefits of membership of
PAW.
Objectives
The Partnership's objectives are:
- To take the lead in considering strategic issues concerned with combating
wildlife crime and to report periodically;
- To provide support for the networks of Police Wildlife Crime Officers
and HM Revenue and Customs Officers;
- To facilitate the exchange of information, experience, specialist
knowledge and expertise on wildlife enforcement related topics between
all the agencies involved in this area of law enforcement;
- To increase public awareness of the key issues associated with combating
wildlife crime;
- To raise the profile of wildlife crime within the statutory enforcement
agencies and the judiciary;
- To promote and encourage the use of and research into forensic technologies,
for application in wildlife crime investigations.
Structure
The Partnership consists of; Government and non-Government Partners;
a Steering Group; Working Groups reporting to the Steering Group; and
a Secretariat provide by Defra.
Around 100 non-Government partner organisations have signed the PAW
'Statement of Commitment'. They, along with representatives of the Police
and HM Revenue and Customs, are invited to an annual Open Seminar to
review progress over the previous year and to look ahead to the year
to come.
The Steering Group consists of representatives of the Police,
HM Revenue and Customs, Defra and other Government Departments, and meets
2-3 times each year to co-ordinate the Partnership's activities, and to
determine its priorities. It sets up Working Groups to take forward work
on particular issues, and appoints a Co-ordinator to lead each Working
Group.
The Working Groups consist of specialist
representatives invited to participate by the Co-ordinator, and operate
within Terms of Reference agreed by the Steering Group on behalf of
the Partnership. There are eight Working groups and you can read about
their activities in the
PAW Bulletins.
They are:
-
Scotland Working Group
Wales Working Group
Northern Ireland Working Group
- develop initiatives which are specifically tailored to meet Scottish,
Welsh and Irish issues and concerns, particularly following
the devolution of certain wildlife controls. Both working groups
are subsidiaries of UK PAW and participate actively in its national
activities.
- Legal
Working Group – keeps wildlife enforcement legislation under
review; welcomes views on whether existing laws are effective and
achieve their purpose; and keeps abreast of significant cases and
decisions.
-
Publicity Working Group – prepares material
to support the Partnership, to raise awareness of wildlife crime
issues, and to promote wildlife law enforcement.
-
Training Working Group – oversees arrangements
for the annual national PWCO Conference and other training events.
Reviews wildlife enforcement training needs and requirements and
looks at ways of meeting them.
-
Forensics Working Group – keeps abreast
of developments in this area of rapid progress and works to provide
tools to assist enforcers in their investigations. Advises on
how forensic techniques used in other situations might be applied
to wildlife investigations.
- Marine Wildlife Enforcement
Working Group - considers ways of improving
the enforcement of legislation protecting marine species, including
building a network of those with expertise in the area, and exploring
ways of raising public awareness.
- Police wildlife crime officers/HM Revenue
and Customs Working Group -this
groups acts as a link between PAW and the police and customs officers
on the ground. Regional representatives maintain close liaison
with Police and Customs Officers working within their areas.
- The Secretariat, provided by Defra,
gives administrative support to the Steering Group.
It publishes bulletins to publicise PAW's activities, including
summaries of Working Group reports and other developments. It
arranges the annual Open Seminar, and the Police and Customs Wildlife
Enforcement Conference.
The Statement of Commitment has been made available in MS Word 97
and Adobe Acrobat format for downloading:
The Word version has been created as a "form", so that you
can complete the relevant sections before printing, signing and returning
the document; you may wish to save the file locally before doing so (in
general, if you right-click on the link, above, you will be given the
option to "save link as ..." or "save target as ..."
and then choose a suitable location on your PC). The Adobe Acrobat
version should be printed and then completed in manuscript before returning
it.
If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your
PC, it is widely distributed and can be freely downloaded.
Viewers with visual difficulties may find it useful to investigate
services provided to improve the accessibility of Acrobat documents
- access.adobe.com/.
A free viewer for MS Word files is available from www.microsoft.com
Contacts
You can contact the PAW Secretariat as follows:
Defra
Zone 1/11
Temple Quay House
2 The Square
Temple Quay, Bristol, BS1 6EB
Telephone: 0117 372 8551
Fax: 0117 372 8393
Email: paw.secretariat@defra.gsi.gov.uk
Website: www.defra.gov.uk/paw
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