There appears to be something very dodgy going on at NatureScot (NS), the Scottish Government’s statutory advisor on nature conservation.
There’s been some shocking behaviour in recent months, some of which I won’t write about just yet because legal proceedings may be imminent, but one thing I can write about is NS’s failure to provide documents I requested via FoI/EIR over two months ago in relation to the shambolic grouse moor licences.
As many of you will know, the new grouse moor licences, introduced this year as part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act, have already been sabotaged by the grouse shooting industry and as a result have been significantly weakened by a new licence condition introduced by NS, meaning the licences no longer cover an entire shooting estate but just the parts of the estate where red grouse are ‘taken or killed’, which on a driven grouse moor could effectively just mean a small area around a line of grouse butts (see previous blogs here, here, here, here, and here for background details).
I submitted an FoI request to NatureScot on Friday 11 October 2024 and asked for the following information:
- A copy of the legal advice NatureScot received in relation to these changes.
- A copy of all correspondence between NatureScot and Ministers in relation to these changes.
- A copy of all external correspondence in relation to these changes.
- A copy of all internal correspondence in relation to these changes.
NatureScot’s response was due back by 8 November 2024 (20 working days).
Predictably, NS failed to meet this deadline and wrote to me on 5 November with the following:
“We are having to extend the timescale to respond to your request. This means we must respond to your information request by 9 December 2024 [another 20 working days] at the latest, though we will do our best to respond before that“.
On Monday 9 December 2024 [40 working days since I submitted my request], NatureScot wrote again:
“We are working on our response but, unfortunately, we won’t be able to send it to you today…..I will contact you again later this week to update you on progress. We aim to send our response by the end of this week at the latest“.
On Thursday 12 December I wrote to NS to ask for an update and an explanation for the current delay as it was now well past 40 working days since I submitted my request.
On Friday 13 December, NatureScot replied:
“I am writing to let you know that NatureScot will not be able to provide you with the information you have requested today. We are giving careful consideration to releasing the information you have requested, and this is taking longer than expected. We are aiming to provide you with a response as soon as possible and will update you early next week“.
Given it’s now Wednesday (i.e. mid-week), and the ‘early’ part of this week has already passed, today I wrote to NatureScot again and pointed out that they’d already had 46 working days to comply with the FoI regs and as it’s now day 47, where is the information that I requested way back in October?
I’m not usually one for conspiracy theories but given what else I know NS has been up to behind the scenes these last few months, I’m deeply suspicious of these stalling tactics. You can only put so much down to incompetence; after that, it starts to look decidedly dodgy.
UPDATE 24 January 2025: NatureScot capitulated on grouse moor licensing after legal threats by game-shooting industry (here)
Raptor Persecution UK 
There are many estates that do “walked up” grouse shooting so surely the whole estate/Moor should covered by licence not just the butts?
Walked-up is not generally done on estates where it is economically viable to shoot driven grouse. Except for maybe some low-key let days and informal days, or keepers days. If a manager / agent can make the numbers add up in terms of viable return on the total for an owners capital investment & ongoing outlay for roads, houses, keepers wages, etc, etc then Driven Grouse is what they will do every time. It has the prestige – and the two models of management are very different in terms of intensity.
Ruth, I certainly agree with you on this, and particularly your last sentence. But we do have to accept that NatureScot are spectacularly and pyrotechnically incompetent, although they do seem to have gone beyond that this time.
Can such prevarication be allowed to go on indefinitely Ruth?
Hi Wilf,
No, there’s a legal process NS must follow, and also I must follow it before making a complaint to the Information Commissioner. Watch this space.
Figured there had to be. Power to your keyboard, Ruth!
Place too much strain on a cover and the internal structure begins to take shape.
Your tenacity is admirable. Thank you so much.
well said, and seconded.
Thank you Ruth for keeping at this work. It must be so frustrating but you have a huge following cheering you all the way. Good job!
So to reply one day late, saying that you can’t reply fully, and will have to have a further extension is totally unacceptable. This stalling obviously shows some sort of cover-up, that either already is in place, or is being concocted before the next deadline. This whole persecution of raptors seems acceptable by some, who then claim to be wildlife lovers, has to be called out. Can this not be transferred to mainstream media?
Maybe I’m jumping the gun (please pardon the pun) but can the Scottish Government not be alerted to this sham, that one of their own bodies is so utterly incompetent, or that they are giving the appearance of being more aligned to the shooting lot and completely at odds with their supposed purpose?
I make frequent use of the Freedom of Information Act and think it is time to request an Internal Review. I am sure you know this but to do nothing will allow NS to succeed in further delays. This step is necessary in order to complain to the Scottish ICO. The FOIA requires the information to be provided within 20 working days so they are way over the lawful time limit now. It doesn’t look good for this body to fail to comply with the FOIA.
I am in Wales and there is different but similar legislation here. I usually find that when a department is slow they are trying to hide something. The best example of this was where the Welsh government had issued a press release that was wrong. I actually wrote to the minister in charge of this when they didn’t respond to my request within 20 days. I had a pretty good idea of what was on it because of the press coverage. Not releasing a press release! I too would be considering asking for an internal review to push them. There may be legal differences I don’t know about though.
Excellent coverage Ruth but like Lizzy said frustrating again everyone comments are to the point it’s a shame a cover up Nature Scot obviously has no credibility.
On an nice note I was riding this morning and our buzzard just sat in a tree right next to us she is beautiful always around we admired each other and I can’t perceive what person with a beating heart could ever consider hurting her or others, I shed a tear and carried on my ride she made my day . Seeing her always does and her youngsters.
The whole thing stinks to high heaven. Someone with power is pulling strings behind the scenes to make the licensing go away.