Last week I wrote about how REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform, had held a successful fringe event at the SNP’s annual conference (here).
REVIVE was also at the Scottish Green’s conference, receiving an equal amount of support from delegates and the Minister. There’s now a write-up on the REVIVE website about both these events (see here).
As we await the imminent (I’m told!) release of the Scottish Government’s consultation on grouse moor licensing, the next few months will be critical for political engagement, both by campaign groups and the public alike.
The consultation will feed into draft legislation which will then be subject to debate and amendments as the draft bill progresses through Parliament during this session, as set out recently in the 2022-2023 Programme for Government (see here).
REVIVE will be at the forefront of engagement so if you’d like to be kept informed you can sign up for information and updates here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
I am not convinced that using “Grouse moor” as defined licensed area is going to work. On recent walks I noticed a lot of Red Legged Partridges with feeders on what I would previously consider grouse moor. I think there is an argument that any shoot should be licensed whether grouse, pheasant, partridge or anything else. I think the license terms should include what and how many birds were released, how many were shot and where they ended up, and how many were recaptured. In other words transparency.
Indeed, Eric. The consultation process should provide an opportunity to make these points.
I’ve blogged about this issue before:
Let us hope that the powers that be will understand and take it into consideration when drafting the legislation. I can just hear the arguments “we primarily shoot partridge so we don’t need to be licensed”, “the shoot caught fire so I controlled it”, “the medicated grit is for the pheasants, we can’t stop the grouse taking it”.
Well they’re certainly aware of the issue because it’s been raised with them by a number of organisations.
Let’s see whether the draft legislation takes it into account. If it doesn’t, the Gov can expect significant push-back.