Scottish Environment Minister Gillian Martin MSP will give evidence tomorrow morning (Wednesday 1 November 2023) to the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee as part of the Committee’s continued Stage 1 scrutiny of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill.
For new blog readers, this is the Bill that has been introduced by the Scottish Government in response to the recommendations made in the 2019 Werritty Review and is designed to bring in licensing for grouse moor management and introduce measures to put an end to the illegal killing of birds of prey on grouse moors.
The Minister will be joined by some specialist civil servants from the Government’s Wildlife Management Unit who have been responsible for drafting this Bill.
The focus of tomorrow’s evidence session will be on the Government’s proposed ban on snares and on extending the investigatory powers of the Scottish SPCA.
A further evidence session will take place next week (Weds 8 November) where stakeholder groups will be providing evidence on these two issues. I’ll provide more detail about that nearer the time.
The Stage 1 debate, where the whole of the Scottish Parliament has an opportunity to discuss/accept/challenge the Committee’s Stage 1 report in the main Chamber, is scheduled for Wednesday 29 November 2023.
The clerks to the Rural Affairs Committee have prepared some helpful background notes to tomorrow’s meeting for those who may be new to the subject:
You may recall that the Scottish Government recently held (yet another!) public consultation on its proposal to ban snares and its proposal to extend the investigatory powers of the SSPCA. That consultation closed on 3 October 2023 and I know that many of you participated (thank you!).
In preparation for tomorrow’s hearing, the Environment Minister today wrote to the Rural Affairs Committee with a preliminary analysis of those 5,289 consultation responses.
The headline news from that analysis is that a significant majority of respondents support the Government’s proposals to ban snares and so called ‘humane cable restraints’ (70% in support, compared to just 29% against), and a significant majority of respondents support the Government’s proposals to extend the investigatory powers of the SSPCA (71% in support, compared to just 26% against).
Here is the Minister’s letter to the Committee:
Tomorrow’s hearing begins at 9am and can be watched live on Scottish Parliament TV (here). A video recording will also be available for those who can’t watch the live proceedings and of course there’ll be a transcript of the session which I’ll post here as soon as it becomes available (usually a couple of days afterwards).
UPDATE 2nd November 2023: Last ditch attempt by grouse moor lobby to water down Scottish Government’s proposed ban on snares (here)
UPDATE 4th November 2023: The transcript from the session is now available:
UPDATE 9 November 2023: Scottish Environment Minister proposes full ban on all snares (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
Interesting percentages. I wonder if Gillian Martin’s evidence underpins or undermines them? Her background hardly fills me with confidence. Fingers crossed.
I’ve just watched the Committee in session and was impressed by the objectivity and position of Minister Gillian Martin and generally encouraged by the process as whole. She appears to accept where the Will of the People lies.
Yep and she clearly “gets it” – that the very concept of putting out thousands of bits of wire up and down the country to catch foxes around their necks – and accepting as unavoidable whatever follows thereafter – is incompatible with saying we live in a humane society. I wonder what the SLE’s game is / was – i.e. putting their document in at such short notice? Were they still trying to lobby someone for support before they crafted it?
It’s looking increasingly likely that snares and cable restraints will be banned in Scotland. Obviously this will be a fantastic step in the right direction, however the big question is how many grouse moor owners and other land managers will adhere to a ban. After all some of them have demonstrated time and again that they aren’t always law abiding citizens and as we all know enforcing the law in remote areas and proving guilt is incredibly difficult. The best hope is that any grouse more that has snares on it will have their licence revoked. A bigger question will be if other landowners with snares on their land will face any consequences such as suspension of any agri-environmental subsidies they may be receiving.
i agree that the big land owners wont adhere to the law to ban snares .
If snares are banned, will posession be an offence?