A couple of weeks ago I wrote about BASC’s grandstanding antics in response to a High Court ruling about the keeping of non-native gamebirds (Pheasants and Red-legged Partridges) on Special Protection Areas (SPAs) or within the 500m of the SPA’s boundary (see here).
BASC had framed its judicial review ‘win’ in such a way that led many in the gamebird shooting sector to think that the High Court had quashed the licences issued by Natural England for the restriction of gamebird releases on, or in the buffer zone, of almost all SPAs in England.
But that wasn’t the case at all. The High Court ruling related only to a condition of those licences – that of keeping gamebirds in pens on site – the licences required for the subsequent release of those gamebirds still remain in place, as does the condition relating to delayed release dates on some SPAs.
BASC’s vague statement about the judgement was mostly focused on bigging itself up, probably in an attempt to impress the BASC membership after BASC received widespread criticism from members for its perceived failure to stand up against the forthcoming ban on lead ammunition. Strangely, BASC’s statement said very little about the real-world consequences of the judicial review ‘win’. All BASC said about that was,
“BASC will now consider the detail of the 47-page judgement before issuing further advice on how this will effect shoots in or near SPAs in England“.
Since then, I haven’t seen any “further advice” from BASC, which seems a bit odd given that now is the time many of its members will be wanting to tip out thousands of gamebirds in to pens in preparation for release, before chasing them around the countryside and shooting at them.
The reason why BASC hasn’t been able to publicly issue any ‘further advice’ is probably because the court has yet to finalise the consequences of its earlier ruling, and it can’t complete that process until it has considered Natural England’s application to appeal the outcome of the judicial review.
What that means, in real-world terms, is that although Mr Justice Ritchie ruled last month that Natural England’s licence condition relating to the keeping of gamebirds in pens on site was unlawful, the licences, and their conditions, remain firmly in place until such time that the proceedings are fully concluded.
Both parties have since made submissions to the court about how they want the specifics of the ruling to play out, and there’ll be a ‘consequentials hearing’ at the High Court, expected to be in September, for the judge to make formal orders.
However, if the judge refuses Natural England’s application to appeal the original ruling, then Natural England may decide to apply to the Court of Appeal, which, if permission to proceed is granted, will take time and will further delay the final outcome of this case, certainly beyond the timescale of the release period of this year’s shooting season.
Raptor Persecution UK 