Following the announcement from Defra in July 2025 that the Government aimed to introduce legislation by the summer of 2026 to ban the sale and use of toxic lead ammunition for ‘live quarry shooting’ over a three-year transition period (see here), the start date for the ban has now been confirmed as 1st April 2029.
A new Statutory Instrument was laid before Parliament on 3rd March 2026 and will come in to force on 1st April 2026. This is The REACH (Amendment) Regulations 2026, which determine the start date for the ban which will apply in England, Wales and Scotland.
The REACH Regulation (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) aims to ensure a high level of protection for human health and the environment against the harmful effects of chemical substances.
The SI details those who will be exempt from the ban (e.g. elite athletes, military, police, Border Force). The ban covers shotgun cartridges (all calibres) and rifle ammunition for live quarry shooting in calibres of 6.17 mm (.243 and above).
Importantly, the ban includes not just the sale of toxic lead ammunition, but also the use of it. That means that once the ban is in force, it will be a criminal offence to use toxic lead ammunition, regardless of whether it was bought prior to the ban.
Let’s hope that all those gamebird shooters who are currently bragging on social media about how they’ve already begun to stockpile their toxic lead ammunition (with a clear intention to use it once the ban commences) get the message.
Raptor Persecution UK 
It’s a shame this has a three year lead-in time. The shooting fraternity have known about the problems with lead ammunition for decades. As always, the ‘voluntary’ route did not work. These people are belligerent individuals who seem to relish confrontations with both the norms of society and science.
Any other commercial land use that sprayed lead onto the ground would be illegal. The land in question would be designated ‘contaminated land’ and there would be constraints on its sale, which would include remediation to remove the toxins.
But the proclivities of the landowning class seem to attract exemptions not available to the rest of us. Let us not forget that much of the shooting takes place on land that is farmed and/or used for obtaining our drinking water. Not only should lead shot be banned immediately but also the land over which lead has been shot should be declared ‘contaminated’ and remediation should be enforced.
Spot on!
“It’s a shame this has a three year lead-in time.”
I agree, especially since the shooting brigade instituted a ‘voluntary ban’ in February 2020 which failed:
“In 2020, the CLA, along with the British Association of Shooting and Conservation (BASC) The Countryside Alliance (CA), Scottish Land & Estates (SLE), Moorland Association (MA), National Gamekeepers Organisation (NGO), Scottish Association for Country Sports (SACS) and the British Game Alliance (now Eat Wild) took the initiative to announce a voluntary five-year transition away from lead shot.”
Allowing that lot another three-year extension is unwarranted by Emma Reynolds, who has expressed zero previous interest in the environment:-(
“Between losing her seat in 2019 and returning to Parliament in 2024, Reynolds worked as a lobbyist for TheCityUK, an advocacy group representing the interests of the financial sector”
I was in her constituency just yesterday with some powerful people – lobbying publicly over environmental matters she is currently adjudicating on – and attracted the close attentions of the BBC Three Counties radio.
I hope she shows some spine and begins the turn-around of Defra into the body it should be after the disaster that was Steven Reed:-(
Emma Reynolds, Steve Reed – yes. This government seems to be unable to find anyone who knows anything/cares a jot about animals and the environment they’re trying to survive in.
Ruth Jones MP would be a good person to have in this post. As well as trying to get a ban on the imports of fur/fur products she was at a meeting in Westminster which is lobbying to get sale of catapults restricted. Kids can get them too easily.
She has been kind enough to write back to me about fur, though I’m not a constituent. Maybe when I write to my own MP about shotguns and the like, I’ll copy her in.
Yes, so what nothing will change. Any fines will be insulting and its always the birds that suffer. To be honest until they take it seriously and punish or outlaw shooting live creatures they may as well not even bother.
It is regrettable that the government has chosen to give a three year period of grace before the ban takes effect but it is nevertheless a welcome step that a legal ban has been brought in. Of course this won’t solve all problems associated with game management but it will be beneficial to bring an end to the introduction of tonnes of lead into the environment every year.
The OP mentions the stockpiling of lead ammunition by some shooters, presumably with the intention of using it to by-pass the ban illegally. That is a concern and hopefully the work done by Rhys Green and colleagues to expose the failure of the voluntary phase out and the lack of compliance with existing prohibitions on lead ammunition use over wetlands will be continued to monitor for evidence as to whether or not this is happening.
“hopefully the work done by Rhys Green and colleagues to expose the failure of the voluntary phase out and the lack of compliance with existing prohibitions on lead ammunition use over wetlands will be continued to monitor for evidence as to whether or not this is happening.”
Surely, the Food Standards Agency will do what it has criminally failed to do for decades, and ban lead from wild-shot game?
This Agency – like the Environment Agency, Natural England etc – have been ‘captured’ by corporate interests and allowed themselves to be ‘prostituted’ by the interests of the money and landed classes:-(
That is the only possible explanation why the Food Standards Agency sets no upper limit on the amount of lead in ‘wild-shot’ game sold as fit for human consumption in this country, while doing so for all other farmed food!
The Food Standards Agency write “There is no agreed safe level for lead intake. Independent scientific expert groups advise that exposure to lead should be reduced as far as possible.” yet they refuse set any upper limit for lead in wild-shot game!
i strongly support the lead ban. I shoot birds in low numbers but prefer working my dogs. I also stalk deer for food. I have been lead free for over five years. My contribution to the debate is to recommend that it should be made a criminal offence to be in possession of banned ammunition unless the owner is an exempted person. This probably applies to the site unless clay grounds and rifle ranges are included in the ban. So, probably an offence outside a clay ground, a offence on a game shoot etc. For sensibly ranged shots with rifles or shotguns, lead free is fine. For long range shots, which most people are not qualified to attempt, the shots shouldn’t be taken anyway.
Food Standards Agency – Heather Hancock, Chair of the Board 2015 to 2021. Husband (large property & landowner) owns grouse moors/shoots in Upper Wharfedale. She also “ran” (IMHO v. badly) Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority. Now is the lead non-executive board member of DEFRA, appointed 2023. Says it all.
Yep. This is what we are up against.
One of the ‘powerful people’ I met whilst in Emma Reynold’s constituency (see above) was an ex-Detective Superintendent, Serious Crime Squad, Anti-Corruption Unit, who was quite clear that these arm’s length, non-governmental, regulatory bodies – and the industries they were supposed to be regulating – were (often/sometimes?) acting as organised crime groups.
I am used to politicians fobbing me off with platitudes and excuses. I have never come across someone from ‘authority’, especially from within the Police, be so clear and blunt. And he doesn’t just whisper this privately: he campaigns using a megaphone in front of public gatherings.
There appears to be wide-scale corruption going on in this country:-( Those who care all know it, we all feel it, we all see its effects….
I think some of the strains are coming to the surface… But I wonder if the BBC radio reporter in attendance will emphasise that particular accusation or gloss over it?
We need to ban all lead used out of doors in use, fishing lures, bullet heads and anything like that. Lead is banned here in North America, it kills everything that swallows it.