The hornet occurs in many parts of England and Wales extending from Cornwall to Kent and northwards to Yorkshire. It also occurs on the Isles of Scilly, Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey). Hornets are noticeably scarce in Kent and East Sussex, and much less frequent in other parts of south-east England than before 1950. From the 1970s, hornets spread to the north Midlands and Yorkshire: previous records for these localities were at the beginning of the 20th century.