Month: June 2024

Press release from REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform in Scotland, ahead of today’s debate on the Agriculture Bill:

AGRICULTURE BILL AMENDMENTS COULD STOP BIG FARMING PAYOUTS FOR GROUSE SHOOTING ESTATES

REVIVE, the coalition for grouse moor reform, has welcomed amendments to the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill that could end generous public funding for grouse shooting estates.

The Stage 3 bill is due to be debated by the Scottish Parliament this afternoon (Tuesday 18 June).

The amendments (#37, #38 and #39) were submitted by Scottish Greens MSP Arianne Burgess. They seek to address the issue of shooting estates being indirectly supported by farm subsidies, with some estates receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money each year.

The amendments would allow ministers to:

#37: rule out specific land uses from getting agricultural subsidies in the future;

#38: end public funding for estates where the primary activity on the land is driven grouse shooting;

#39: ensure that wildlife criminals and irresponsible owners cannot benefit from public funding.

 Eliza Chiswell, REVIVE Campaigner, said: 

“REVIVE welcomes Ariane Burgess MSP’s amendments to the Agriculture Bill that would potentially stop grouse shooting estates from receiving public money.

“At its launch in 2018, REVIVE expressed shock that shooting estates could be receiving subsidies and it continues to be very concerned that large sums of public money is indirectly supporting, amongst other things, the killing of hundreds of thousands of foxes, stoats, weasels and crows so that more hundreds of thousands of grouse can be shot for entertainment.

“It is deeply worrying, for example, that an estate like Invermark, which is “principally a sporting estate” [see here] in 2023 received public money to the tune of £213,545 [see here].

“REVIVE has asked its supporters to tell all MSPs that these amendments have strong public support because they ensure that valuable public money supports food production rather than shooting. We hope the amendments receive strong cross-party support and prove to be successful.”

ENDS

The Scottish Greens have also issued a press statement ahead of today’s debate:

The Scottish Government must curb public subsidies for shooting estates and instead use it to support small farmers and the transition to greener agriculture, say the Scottish Greens.

The call comes ahead of the Scottish Parliament voting on the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill, which will have its final vote this week.

The Scottish Greens rural affairs spokesperson, Ariane Burgess MSP, will be moving amendments that would end subsidies for land that is dominated by grouse moors and boost support for small farmers.

Shooting estates are being indirectly supported by farm subsidies, with one example cited by the REVIVE coalition as having received over £200,000 a year. This allows them to continue the damaging practices of widespread burning of peatland vegetation and the unnecessary killing of our wildlife.

Ms Burgess, said: “It’s grossly unfair that enormous shooting estates are benefiting from subsidies paid for by the taxpayer. 

“This is public money that should be invested in supporting farmers and rural communities to transition to net-zero, but instead it’s being pocketed by giant landowners and is effectively subsidising the management of Scotland’s uplands for bloodsports.

“My amendments would prohibit subsidies for driven grouse moors, and ensure that Scottish Ministers cannot hand out public money to wildlife criminals. I hope that all MSPs who are concerned about animal welfare will support these amendments.

“The last 14 years have been painful for a lot of people. The last thing we should be doing in a cost of living crisis is handing out subsidies to wealthy landowners for organised cruelty.”

Ms Burgess will also be moving amendments that would support farmers to reduce the environmental impacts of the agriculture industry and assist small to medium scale farmers, crofters and growers to purchase land for food production.

Ms Burgess added: “Small scale farmers play an invaluable role in our food production and in their communities, but, with the current pressures, many are finding it harder to run a sustainable business. 

“Many of them are young and new entrants, and I hope that this bill will provide them with extra support to allow them to purchase and enhance the land around them.”

ENDS

The Stage 3 debate on the Agriculture Bill is expected to start around 3pm in the main chamber and can be watched live on Scottish Parliament TV here.

The Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, which received royal assent on 30th April 2024 (here), is the long-awaited legislation that introduces a licensing scheme for red grouse shooting in Scotland.

It was introduced as the Scottish Government’s response to the continued widespread illegal killing of birds of prey on grouse moors. It will work on the basis that all red grouse shooting must now be licensed in Scotland and if, on the civil burden of proof (i.e. the balance of probability) sufficient evidence is found that the licence has been breached (including evidence of illegal raptor persecution), the licence can be withdrawn as a sanction, preventing the shooting of red grouse on a particular estate for a given period.

This is a significant improvement on the previous situation, where grouse-shooting was mostly unregulated and the evidence required to secure a conviction had to meet the higher threshold of the criminal burden of proof (i.e. beyond reasonable doubt), which was near enough impossible to achieve given the remoteness of the crime locations and the lack of witnesses. Even when a gamekeeper was successfully convicted, the shooting estate rarely suffered any consequences and red grouse shooting could continue as before.

As part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Act, two new Codes of Practice are being developed to support the new law – a code of practice for grouse moor management and a code of practice for muirburn. If an estate breaches the terms of these new codes, its licence to shoot red grouse can be removed.

Following an update I wrote last month about the development of these two new codes (see here), there has been further progress on the grouse moor management code (referred to as the Grouse Code).

It is still in draft format but is said by officials to be ‘approaching a final version’. It’s anticipated that the Grouse Code will be in place for the start of the grouse shooting season on the Inglorious 12th August whereas the Code of Practice for Muirburn is not expected to be finalised until early 2025.

The latest draft version of the Grouse Code can be read/downloaded here:

Scotland’s statutory nature conservation agency, NatureScot, has finally started its species licensing review.

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2021-2022 included a commitment to, ‘Review the wider species licensing system with a view to ensuring that the law is being applied correctly and that lethal control is only licensed where the conditions required for such a licence are demonstrably being met. The review will also assess the potential to apply the principle of full cost recovery to species licensing and the introduction of a public register of licenses to improve transparency‘.

This was also included in the shared policy agreement between the Scottish Greens and the SNP in 2021.

NatureScot issues approx 90 different types of licences each year to cover all sort of activities that otherwise would be illegal, e.g. Disturbance licences to Raptor Study Group members whose nest monitoring activities would otherwise disturb Schedule 1 raptor species, individual and general licences to kill various wild birds to prevent damage to livestock and crops and to protect public health and safety, licences to use certain traps to kill wild mammals, licences to kill mountain hares to prevent damage to trees, licences to permit the hunting of mammals with more than two dogs, and of course the imminent licences that will be required for grouse moor management under the new Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.

NatureScot has just published its Terms of Reference (see below) for its Species Licensing Review and there are three main objectives:

1. Ensure that the law is being applied correctly and that lethal control is only licensed where the conditions required for such a licence are demonstrably being met;
2. Assess the potential to apply the principle of full cost recovery to species licensing;
3. Assess the potential to introduce a public register of licenses to improve transparency, bearing in mind data protection and safety of licence holders.

Objective #1 is obviously important and follows on from significant reviews of the General Licences in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after legal challenges from Wild Justice.

Objective #2 became a prominent topic of discussion during the debates on the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Bill – it was widely argued by conservationists that grouse moor owners should pay a fee for their licences, not only to cover the admin costs of issuing the licences but especially to cover subsequent compliance monitoring, which should not come at a cost to the public purse.

Objective #3 is interesting – a searchable public register of licences would be useful, especially if licence holders are required to provide annual licence returns (e.g. how many red grouse were lawfully shot in a particular area in a given season?).

The anticipated timetable for the review is provided in the Terms of Reference and it’s suggested that a report will be ready for external review in October 2024.

The Terms of Reference can be read/downloaded here: