Wildlife Programmes Directorate

The executive agency responsible for the management, relocation, housing, surveillance, and diplomatic engagement of non-human persons across the United Kingdom. Established 2023. None of its programmes were requested by the public.

About the Directorate

The Wildlife Programmes Directorate (WPD) was formed in August 2023 in direct response to the Serengeti Displacement Event, the circumstances of which remain classified under the Official Secrets Act. What can be disclosed is that, over the course of nine days in August 2023, a number of large non-native mammals arrived in the United Kingdom by means the Directorate is not permitted to describe, and that no satisfactory account has since been provided for their continued presence.

The Directorate was established to manage the consequences. It has since assumed responsibility for a number of further programmes that are only loosely connected to the Event, several of which predate it, and one that the Directorate maintains it never formally agreed to run.

The Serengeti Displacement Event

The following summary was released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 following the removal of material exempt under sections 23, 27, and 41.

On ████████, an estimated ████████ wildebeest, ████████ giraffe, and ████████ hippopotami were observed at ████████, having ████ Nuneaton ████. The mechanism of their arrival ████████ and has not been replicated. A representative of ████████ described the situation as ████████. The animals have not left.

Our programmes

The Directorate currently administers six programmes. Statuses are reviewed quarterly and updated without explanation.

Four programmes are operational. One is paused. One is suspended. The Directorate considers this an improvement on the position twelve months ago, when two were on fire.

How the remit grew

The Directorate’s remit has been formally extended on five occasions. The original 2023 remit covered the relocation and housing of displaced Serengeti fauna. It now also covers:

• Residential surveillance — added 2024, origin unclear
• Urban fox diplomacy — transferred from the Home Office in 2024, reasons withheld
• Canal maintenance — assumed in 2025 following what the Canal & River Trust described as “a misunderstanding”
• Pedestrian crossing safety — added 2026, after a ministerial remark that the Directorate has chosen to interpret as an instruction

The Directorate’s annual budget is £118.4m, of which £109.6m is allocated to programme costs the Directorate is unable to itemise in its published accounts. The Treasury has described this as “within tolerance.” The National Audit Office has described it as “noted.”

Leadership and structure

The Directorate is led by Acting Director General Penelope Whitford, who has held the post in an acting capacity since November 2023. The permanent appointment remains under review. Ms Whitford declined to comment, referring the Directorate to a press officer who left the Directorate in 2024.

Each programme is led by a Programme Director. Hilary Tomkinson, Programme Director for GWUSRP, is the longest-serving and the only one whose office has a window.

Inter-service coordination is handled at a weekly meeting of Programme Directors, the Acting DG, a representative of the Hadrian Institute, and a heron. The heron transferred from the predecessor unit in 2021 under TUPE and retains its place at the table. Its contributions are not minuted. No one has asked it to leave.

The Directorate employs 287 human staff and 41 non-human attachés whose employment status the Treasury describes as “under discussion.” It operates from four regional offices and one further structure, in Rotherham, whose legal status the Directorate has been unable to establish since 2024.

Organisation history

The Directorate has been renamed five times in eighteen months. This is not unusual for an executive agency. What is unusual is the speed.

Visibility

The Wildlife Programmes Directorate does not appear on DEFRA’s published organisational chart. It was removed in March 2024 pending a decision on its public visibility, which has not been taken. The Directorate understands the decision remains under review and has, in the interim, continued to operate.

Contact

The Directorate’s head office is in Nuneaton, co-located with the Hadrian Institute for reasons that predate both organisations and that neither will discuss.

Or telephone the Wildebeest Concern Hotline on 0800 111 9453. Lines are open during office hours. The line is not monitored outside office hours, during the Dewsbury situation, or at any time the heron is present in the building.

Legal and policy

• Wildebeest Rights Act 2023 — key provisions including adequate grazing, quality television, and the Horny McHornface Incident
• Privacy policy — how the Department uses your data, including your tea preferences
• Terms and conditions — your obligations, the Department’s obligations, and Clause 47(b)
• Accessibility statement — designed to be accessible to all users, including wildebeest
• Report suspicious accent development — if a wildebeest in your care has developed a regional accent