Last month Natural England announced that it had made a (very sensible) decision not to issue a Hen Harrier brood meddling licence to the Moorland Association in 2025 (see here).
This announcement came a few weeks after Natural England’s announcement that the seven-year Hen Harrier brood meddling trial had now ended (see here).
For new blog readers, the Hen Harrier brood meddling trial was a conservation sham sanctioned by DEFRA as part of its ludicrous ‘Hen Harrier Action Plan‘ and carried out by Natural England between 2018 – 2024, in cahoots with the grouse shooting industry, the very industry responsible for the species’ catastrophic decline in England. In general terms, the plan involved the removal of Hen Harrier chicks from grouse moors, they were reared in captivity, then released back into the uplands just in time for the start of the grouse-shooting season where many were illegally killed. It was plainly bonkers. For more background see here and here.
The RSPB has long objected to Hen Harrier brood meddling, and even took, along with Mark Avery, a legal challenge against the brood meddling trial in 2018 (here) but unfortunately this was unsuccessful.
The RSPB has now responded to Natural England’s decision not to issue a Hen Harrier brood meddling licence in 2025 and has expressed its ‘relief’ at the decision, given the ongoing illegal persecution of this species by gamekeepers on UK grouse moors. The RSPB remains concerned about the potential for a future brood meddling licence.
The RSPB’s response can be read here.
Raptor Persecution UK 
What is really needed is someone very high profile, like a royal or an MP and who understands the countryside and the persecution of these magnificent and beautiful supposedly protected birds. Someone who can say NO and its both listened to and actioned on as it should be. Given the current royal males, unless the younger are being brought up with more compassion, I think they may well be a hopeless cause. That leaves us with MP’s so lets pray to God that Reform will be voted in and then there will be one or more among them that lives in the country and loves it enough to put their money and their mouth together. Its about the only hope, DEFRA are like most government departments ineffectual and useless.
The persecution of raptors is an inherent tradition of the blood sports lobby. They just can’t help themselves. Typical, I’m afraid of the gullibility of DEFRA to think that they are dealing with rational people.
I don’t think that anyone high profile, or from the Royal Family , would respond in a positive way, because they are all tarnished with the same brush, complacency and cowardice.
“Typical, I’m afraid of the gullibility of DEFRA to think that they are dealing with rational people”
I do not, for one second, think that the mandarins who run DEFRA are gullible. They are often from the same class which runs UK industry, and often enjoy the same ‘pastimes’.
The current Chancellor’s husband has been the Chief Operating Officer and Second Permanent Secretary in DEFRA since 2023. He has been a senior Civil Servant within DEFRA (including Head of the Policy Profession) since 2014 (throughout many of the Tory years, including Brood Meddling) and before that, was part of the UK delegation to the IMF and World Bank.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2019 for ‘services to the environment’!
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/62666/supplement/B3
He has a Phd in modern history and once worked as a journalist. Perfect:-(
“so lets pray to God that Reform will be voted in”
While I can understand your desire for somebody of great political influence to bring irresistible publicity to the plight of raptors, I do not have your faith that anyone within Reform will do that.
Sadly, although it is a topic upon which many (most) people have concern, it does not necessarily rank as being among their highest concerns in the world today, especially so if they do not happen to live with the daily consequences of the shooting industry.
Of course, the media play a part in shaping people’s perceived priorities, and we do not get much support from them, particularly from national BBC (where it would count) I would say.
The Senior Independent Board Member for DEFRA is one Heather Hancock. She is also Chair of the Royal Countryside Fund and ex-Food Standards Agency Chair. Plus a couple of ex-directorships. She is, or maybe was, married to a grouse moor owner living near Grassington and wrote a report in 2014 about bias in the BBC against (amongst other things rural) game shooting …. or country sports as they term it.
Click to access rural_impartiality.pdf
So she is in a position of great influence and power. I have seen photographs of her on grouse shooting days at the butts. No question of her allegiances then IMO.
Thanks for that… Very interesting.
Sorry for being so off topic but felt it was relative to comment.
[Ed: Thanks Tim. I’ve had to delete it because to make those kinds of allegations you’d need to provide supporting evidence. I’ve seen photos of Farage at fox hunts but I can’t publish what you assert are his views on fox hunting without more information]
IMO the only sense in which Reform would stop the illegal persecution of raptors is by repealing the laws that protect them therefore meaning it wouldn’t be illegal persecution – just legal “control” – by according them the legal status of Carrion Crows i.e. pretty do what you want to get rid of them.
I can’t believe anyone would conceive of Farage doing anything other than helping out his City friends (owners of a lot of grouse moors, and the economic mainstay / paying guests on most) by giving them a legal free hand to smash everything to bits that could possibly interfere with “maximum bags = maximum capital value” driven model of modern grouse moors.
I don’t mind my dogs chewing up any of the propaganda leaflets that come through the letterbox from all of the political parties – but I positively encourage them to shred the Reform stuff, and they duly oblige – dogs are at heart straight dealing & honest creatures and are also not easily hoodwinked. They can sniff out a con & detect the false promises of a rosy future better than most people (evidently).
[Ed: off topic]
[Ed: Comment deleted. Trolls not tolerated here]