Professor Alan Werritty, Chair of the Scottish Government’s Grouse Moor Management Review Group, will give evidence to the Environment, Climate Change and Environment (ECCLR) Committee on Tuesday.
Professor Werritty will be joined by Professor Alison Hestor and Professor Colin Reid, who also served on the grouse moor management review group.
Documents prepared for the evidence session suggest the Committee will be seeking further information about the recommendations made in the Werritty Review and probably on the proposed five-year delay before licensing, which seems to have been included solely to appease the grouse-shooting industry reps in the review group.
Evidence session documents: ECCLR_2020.01.21_Meeting_papers_(public)
The session begins at 09.30hrs on Tuesday 21 January 2020 in Committee Room 1 and can be watched live on Scottish Parliament TV here.
If you’re unable to watch proceedings live we’ll post the archived video and the official transcript here when they become available.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Thanks. Knowing what I know now I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
I think i may have to take a sedative to listen to him talk about ‘soft touch licensing’.
My feelings are that the Scottish Government made a fundamentally biased decision by terming the review group as the “grouse moor management” review group. When you read the report, it gives the impression Professor Werritty has interpreted this to mean that he is basically reviewing grouse moor management, which the grouse moor managers have reinforced to sway conclusions in their favour. A better title might have been something along the lines of “Ending Persecution of Native Predators on Grouse Moors.” Yes I would include the native Red Fox in that category. Predatory animals are a part of nature, and that needs to be recognised, rather than cow-towing to the unscientific prejudices and fake knowledge expressed by gamekeepers and shotgun enthusiasts in general. I don’t believe that either harriers or foxes significantly affect Red Grouse productivity, and do believe that the views held by grouse moor managers are unscientific, and largely based on traditional beliefs.
A very good and subtle point!
That would mean it would have not included all the other major problems with grouse moors. Not that they came to any conclusions on those but……
Watching the SNP dither on Independence get ready for a long, long, long (and then i died).
A problem with Prof. Werritty’s review is that the remit from the Sc. Gov. was clearly set with loaded parameters designed to ensure that the status quo would endure and that the only changes would be minor and/or cosmetic. It was naive not to realise that many people would quickly spot that ploy.
Wildlife crime is being handled as if it was not a “real crime” and the criminals involved viewed (by some) as not “real criminals”.
Supporters of the current state of affairs would, no doubt, try to have us believe that they are not wrong, but the law is wrong and should be amended to make them all appear to be fine fellows. How appalling a prospect is that. A unique way to tackle crime has been found. Make crime no longer a crime. Problem solved at a stroke.
The Sc. Gov. are on trial. Will they have the courage to stand up to the wildlife crime gangs or will they continue to grub about looking for a bolt hole.
Absolutely spot on. Because it isn’t a real crime (rich people don’t do real crime), it can be compromised with and treated almost like a human right, not to interfere with rich people making money. So it gets relegated to a human conflict issue.
Maybe the new laws will treat it as a serious crime but i seriously doubt it will ever penetrate the thick skulls of those in power that these people are the worst of criminals, organised criminals laughing at the law.
I couldn’t agree more – but it is not just a Scottish issue. The Westminster government really do not care a jot about wildlife crime. It is telling that the only effective policing, ending with effective sentencing, in England and Wales is hare coursing. This, of course, is largely a proletarian pursuit and not one for our Lords and Masters, it generally involves little economic activity and is a hideous pursuit.
Indeed Simon, the problem is wider than Scotland.
However, the Sc. Gov. opted to dip it’s toe in the water in order to convince us all that they would tackle the issue. Having taken that step they will incur self harm if they fail to make substantial progress in defeating the wildlife crime scourge.
There are many determined people who will not tolerate the present state of affairs. Holyrood will learn that if you ride a tiger you cannot dismount.