Prelim results of Prof Werritty’s grouse moor review to be revealed at GWCT conference?!

In May 2017 Scottish Environment Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham initiated a review of grouse moor management following continued evidence of widespread illegal raptor persecution associated with this type of land use (here).

Six months later the members of the review group were announced by the Scottish Government (here) and the review process became known to many of us as the Werritty Review, named after the group’s Chair, Professor Alan Werritty.

Throughout 2018 the Werritty Review group met with a series of individuals and organisations and provided regular reports on progress (here). These reports were welcome although the content was only summarised and no real detail has emerged.

That’s fair enough – we’ll find out the detail in due course, once all the formalities have ended. We’ve been told that the Werritty Review Group’s report will be submitted to Roseanna Cunningham this spring, although in the group’s terms of reference published on the Scottish Government website (here) it states the final report will be submitted “before the end of June 2019“. Hmm, let’s hope we don’t have to wait that long.

But hang on a minute, according to the GWCT, if you’re willing to pay £30 to attend its ‘Game Scotland 2019’ conference in March you’ll get to hear all about the Werritty Review group’s preliminary results before anyone else, assuming that the ‘Grouse Moor Review Panel’ described below is the same as the Werritty Review. What other ‘Grouse Moor Review Panel’ is there?

This can’t be right, surely?

Who will be presenting those “preliminary results” to conference attendees? Will it be a member of the Werritty Review Panel? Perhaps Professor Werritty himself?

Will these preliminary results be revealed before the final report has been submitted to the Scottish Government?

How can the results of a Scottish Government-funded review, paid for with public funds and of huge national interest, be given to the GWCT before being released to the public?

We’ll be asking the Scottish Government if this is true and if so, for an explanation…..stay tuned.

UPDATE 1 Feb 2019: Secretary for Werritty Review confirms prelim results will not be presented at GWCT conference (here)