Press release from Defra (10 July 2025):
TOXIC LEAD AMMUNITION BANNED TO PROTECT BRITAIN’S COUNTRYSIDE
- New ban on use of lead in ammunition to protect iconic wildlife and clean up the nation’s waterways
- Restrictions will help prevent release of an estimated 7,000 tonnes of lead into the environment each year
- Aim to legislate the ban by summer 2026, with three-year transition period to give shooting and hunting sectors time to shift to more environmentally friendly alternatives
Red kites and white-tailed eagles will receive greater protection thanks to new restrictions on the use of lead in ammunition, Environment Minister Emma Hardy announced today.
To protect iconic British wildlife and clean up the nation’s waterways, new measures will ban shot containing more than 1% lead and bullets with a lead content of more than 3%. Beyond limited exemptions, these types of ammunition will no longer be sold to the public.
The ban will prevent the release of an estimated 7,000 tonnes of the toxic metal into fields, forests and wetlands each year. Up to 100,000 wildfowl, including ducks, swans and waders, die from lead poisoning annually, with birds often confusing the scattered shot for grit and consuming it.
Evidence from the Health and Safety Executive shows lead poses a risk to at least 1 million birds over the coming decades if usage continues at its current rate, while around 40,000 birds of prey such as red kites and white-tailed eagles are at risk from ingesting lead through carrion.
Introducing restrictions will also stop lead from contaminating soil and leaching into rivers when guns are discharged and spread the harmful metal, ensuring ecosystems thrive for both wildlife and people alike.
Environment Minister Emma Hardy said:
“Britain is a proud nation of nature lovers, but our rivers are heavily polluted, and majestic birds are declining at an alarming rate.
“This new ban on lead in ammunition for most uses will help reverse this – rejuvenating pride in our countryside by protecting precious birdlife and cleaning up rivers.
“Non-lead alternatives are readily available, and we’ll continue to work closely with the shooting sector throughout this transition.”
Following extensive public engagement, a three-year transition period will support the shooting and hunting sectors to shift to more environmentally friendly alternatives. There will also be a two-year period for outdoor shooting ranges where lead is used to implement measures that prevent pollution from entering the environment.
Alternatives to lead shot have become more efficient and widely available in recent years, with steel and tungsten-based shot being two popular options. The government will continue to engage with the shooting industry to support the transition to alternative ammunition types.
In December 2024, the Health and Safety Executive published their Final Opinion proposing restrictions on the supply and outdoor uses of lead in ammunition – and the Government has now taken action to reduce toxic substances from entering the environment.
As part of the restrictions, there will be exemptions in place for the military, police, elite athletes, outdoor target shooting ranges with risk management measures in place, museum collections and other minor uses. Small calibre bullets for live quarry shooting – the outdoor shooting of live animals – and airguns are not in scope of the restriction.
ENDS
This announcement has been a long, long time coming. Way too long, as various previous governments have been more interested in appeasing the selfish, idiotic game shooting industry instead of acting on reams of scientific evidence, produced over many decades, and doing the right thing for the environment, wildlife and human health.
Well done to Defra Ministers Reed and Hardy, as well as their counterparts in the devolved nations. This is an historic decision and is very welcome indeed.
I could quibble about the long lead-in time – the press release says there’ll be a three-year transition period but actually it’ll be at least four years before the ban becomes real, given that it’ll take at least a year for the new legislation to arrive and the 3-year transition will begin from then. But in the big scheme of things, this seems trivial. The decision to ban toxic lead ammunition will be one of those that future generations look back upon in 25, 50, 75 years time and wonder why the hell it took so long to implement what has been blindingly obvious for decades.
The game shooting industry will be furious. They’ve resisted this move for such a long time, denying the scientific evidence and maintaining there’s no issue here (gosh, sound familiar?!).
That was until February 2020.
After seeing the writing on the wall in parts of the US and Europe where more progressive, enlightened Governments had made huge strides to get rid of toxic lead ammunition, nine of the UK’s shooting organisations, including the National Gamekeepers Organisation, suddenly made a massive U-turn and announced they were introducing a ‘five year voluntary transition away from toxic lead shot’, presumably to deter legislation – the industry hates being forced to do anything because it goes against its ingrained sense of entitlement.
Notably, the dinosaurs at the Scottish Gamekeepers Association refused to sign up to a voluntary transition because they didn’t think there was sufficient evidence to support a move away from the use of toxic lead ammunition (yes, really).
To be fair, some shooting organisations, particularly BASC, made genuine efforts to encourage members to undertake the transition, but many of their members simply refused and a lot of them ditched their membership and wrote angry letters to the shooting press.
BASC tried to save face (and its falling membership) by slurring the scientific credentials of a research team from the University of Cambridge that was monitoring the (non)effectiveness of the five-year transition away from the use of toxic lead ammunition (see here). It wasn’t a good look.
Scientific results published earlier this year demonstrated that the industry’s voluntary five-year transition had failed spectacularly (see here), although the industry hilariously pretended to have made ‘significant progress’ (see here).
Now they’ve got another four years, in addition to the five they’ve already had, to drag themselves into the 21st century.
Will they do it? There’ll be some change, I’m sure, but I’m also sure that there’ll be high levels of non-compliance. Scientific evidence has shown that even though there is already legislation banning the use of toxic lead ammunition in some sensitive environments, non-compliance remains high in England (here and here) and in Scotland (here).
Monitoring and robust enforcement will be key, as ever.
There are many, many people who have worked hard for today’s decision, some of them dedicating their whole careers to this issue. We owe them all a debt of gratitude.
Raptor Persecution UK 
Another 4 years kicking the can down the road. At the end of that time it will be interesting to see if there is oead oin supermarkets still. I personally think dealers in lead shot may still be supplying large amounts of lead, only perhaps somewhat less than at present
Thats all very well but, what about the tonnes of lead already in the environment?
I have been known to do a bit of gold panning and it’s a crying shame when most of your ‘heavies’, in the pad are lead shot from both shotgun and fishing practices.
Split lead shot for angling was banned in January 1987. Although it is still legal to use lead ‘dust’ shot in fishing but only in size 8 down to micro size 13. Non-toxic split shot (tungsten) was available for over a decade before the ban. I was an early adopter in my teens having dealt with a couple of lead-poisoned birds. And I no longer angle.
unfortunately lead from fishing practices many decades before the ban is still there.
Rocket science, Dont leave the bathroom door open if you dont like the smell of crap, Well Defra boys and girls, common sense prevails.
Yes, well done to all those who persisted in pushing for this against the stupid and dishonest shooter lobbies. The fact it was such hard work only highlights how much those lobbies really care about nature and animal welfare.
Wouldnt it be great if we could now get those oranisations and landowners to pay the full cost of removing the lead pollution they’ve knowingly introduced into the environment?
I wonder whether it can be removed. I remember a presentation at a conference which showed that bonemeal could sequester lead in soils. I fear it would not work in peat due to its acid nature, and the quantities needed would be unavailable. Though it might be an option in streams.
Yes, I appreciate it would be impractical. But maybe we could estimate how much lead is in the land of a shooting estate and levy a proportionate tax to go to a fund for decontaminating heavy metal pollutants wherever in the UK its possible eg to clean up heavy metals in SAC rivers. We can dream…
Really good news from Defra but a longtime coming. Hopefully the momentum will continue.
Quite a few bits of good news knocking around this week especially potential restrictions imposed by Defra regarding avian flu. I am awaiting a response from Defra who I have asked to go further to curtail the release of partridge and pheasants. My MP is now involved.
One does not get this far with the shooting industry without a large degree of cynicism. I would imagine that over the next 4 years there will be a surfeit of lead shot in pheasants and partridge that they will be trying to offload onto Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and M&S. This is a product that pregnant women and young children should go nowhere near. There ares no appropriate warnings places by any of the 3 supermarkets and there should be, quite clearly.
One last job for Steve Reed to fix I think
Congratulations to everyone who has pushed for this. But, watch out – the shooters and the shooting industry will mobilise in every way possible to prevent or delay the actual reality of a ban. And then what will the enforcment measures be and how effective? How will imports of “illegal” lead shot be stopped? Sorry to sound a cautious note on a brilliant announcement, but it ain’t done ’till it’s done.
Will the ban be nationwide across the four regions of the UK, or is it a devolved matter so that the issue has to be legislated separately in Northern Ireland?
From what I’ve read, the ban will cover England, Wales & Scotland.
Good news but news that doesn’t seem to have hit a single mainstream news outlet so far.
No doubt a lot of shooters will stockpile plenty of lead ammunition. How will people be prevented from buying lead shot online? Will the government force tech companies to remove all ads for lead shot that can be viewed in the UK or ensure that companies don’t supply it to UK postcodes. I’ve tried to buy medicine for pets that’s prescription only in the UK but sold over the counter in the US, it’s much cheaper than paying a vet for a prescription. Companies I looked at would only deliver to US zip codes so it must be possible to force companies not to deliver goods that are restricted in the UK to UK postcodes. Will this happen with lead ammunition?
It is hilariously predictable that – having backed a five year voluntary phase out back in 2020 – Countryside Alliance and BASC are now saying that the three year transition period (effectively nearly 4 years if the legislation comes in in 2026) is too short. The words ‘bad faith’ spring to mind.
“having backed a five year voluntary phase out back in 2020” and this was because BASC finally admitted that lead was toxic to wildlife but they are quite happy to keep using toxic lead for another 4 years???
“Will they do it? There’ll be some change, I’m sure, but I’m also sure that there’ll be high levels of non-compliance. Scientific evidence has shown that even though there is already legislation banning the use of toxic lead ammunition in some sensitive environments, non-compliance remains high in England (here and here) and in Scotland (here).”
HSE recommended restrictions on use and “supply” of lead ammunition. Hopefully a ban/restriction on supply will be included in the legislation as that surely is necessary to prevent the high levels of non compliance experienced with the current law. Of course there will be some people who find loopholes and work-arounds but if lead shot is not generally available for sale that should greatly reduce the level of use.
They don’t care about anything but themselves destroying everything in their path to shoot tame birds then leave them to rot killing everything that’s a threat and then polluting the environment poisoning wildlife such good honest fun well said Mike b.
I’d be glad to know if the ban on lead shot includes Scotland. The wording sugests it is UK wide.
The ban will apply to England, Wales and Scotland.