Category: News

The Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, currently at Stage 2 of its progression through the Scottish Parliament, makes a provision that when assessing whether to issue a grouse shooting and/or muirburn licence the relevant authority (in this case, NatureScot) must consider whether the licence applicant is complying with the relevant new codes of practice.

These new codes of practice, designed to support the new legislation, are anticipated to include detailed guidance on issues such as the use of wildlife traps, medicated grit, muirburn specifications etc and to clarify what will be a statutory requirement and what will be considered guidance as ‘best practice’.

Under the leadership of NatureScot, two working groups have been established to draft these new codes of practice – one group for general grouse shoot management and one group for muirburn. The terms of the new codes will be thrashed out by these groups.

Minister for Environment Gillian Martin MSP has recently written to the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee to provide an update on the formation of these two working groups and the progress they’ve made so far. Here’s her letter:

I was amused by the Minister’s claim that ‘there is broad agreement amongst the members of each Group as to what should be included in the Codes‘.

Really?

Given the organisations involved in the working groups (see the annex at the end of the Minister’s letter), I’d be utterly amazed if there is ‘broad agreement’ about anything!

All the usual suspects from the grouse shooting world are there (BASC, Countryside Alliance, GWCT, Scottish Land & Estates, Scottish Gamekeepers and the Regional Moorland Groups (which are basically subgroups of the SGA and SLE)) and many of them have been vocally opposed to the Bill since it was first introduced last year (e.g. see here).

Are we really expected to believe that they’re now working in harmony with pro-Bill groups such as the RSPB, the Scottish Raptor Study Group, Scottish Wildlife Trust and Cairngorms National Park Authority without making any attempt to water down the terms of the new codes?

Its laughable.

Further to yesterday’s blog about the suddenly-announced two week delay to the Rural Affairs Committee’s deliberations over the Stage 2 amendments of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Bill (here), an explanation for this delay has now been provided.

And it’s pretty unconvincing, to be honest.

The Convenor of the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee, Finlay Carson MSP (Scottish Conservatives) opened this morning’s meeting by explaining to Committee members that he’d taken the decision to defer due to ‘the weather’.

He felt that as one or two Committee members weren’t able to attend in person, he didn’t want to risk running a hybrid meeting (where members who couldn’t attend in person could attend online) because of the ‘challenges and risks’ that would bring to proceedings.

This explanation was seen as unsatisfactory by two SNP Committee members, Alasdair Allan MSP and Jim Fairlie MSP, who spoke about how hybrid meetings had become common practice since Covid, and indeed that other Committees have managed to handle Stage 2 proceedings perfectly well using this system.

Both SNP members chose their words carefully and clearly wanted it on record that the decision to defer for two weeks was not made by the Committee, but by Finlay Carson alone, as is his prerogative as Convenor. Indeed, both SNP members said the decision had come as a surprise to them and registered their dissatisfaction with the decision.

Alasdair Allan asked for the decision to be taken to a vote by the whole Committee:

“Can I suggest we move to a vote on whether we revert to the original agenda or not?“

Finlay Carson replied:

“That’s not competent. Thank you. We’ll move on…“

That was the end of the discussion and proceedings moved on to an entirely different topic.

If you want to watch this four minute discussion you can see it on the Rural Affairs Committee’s slot on Parliamentary TV (here), starts at 9.06am.

It was interesting to note that as far as I could see, just two Committee members weren’t present at the meeting – Beatrice Wishart MSP (Liberal Democrats & Deputy Convenor of this Committee) and Rachael Hamilton MSP (Scottish Conservatives).

Beatrice Wishart hasn’t played an especially prominent role in this Bill’s proceedings to date but blood sports enthusiast Rachael Hamilton has, and, like her fellow Conservative MSP Finlay Carson, has not been reticent about expressing her fundamental objection to the general principles of the Bill. Indeed, I’d argue she’s been one of the Bill’s fiercest critics (as is her right), at least on this Committee.

Hmm.

Was this huge disruption to Parliamentary proceedings triggered by Rachael’s unavailability? I do wonder.

The good news about this two-week delay is that next week, REVIVE, the Scottish Raptor Study Group and the RSPB are holding a joint reception in the Scottish Parliament which will provide an excellent, and timely, opportunity for MSPs to receive further briefings from those of us who support this Bill and who want some of the more potentially damaging amendments voted down.

Nice.

Earlier this evening I blogged about a two week deferral of voting on the Stage 2 amendments of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Bill (here).

This deferral decision was made at very short notice and no reason was given for it.

As the evening’s worn on, I’ve heard from a number of people inside the Scottish Parliament who have indicated that political shenanigans may be at play.

To protect confidences I’m not at liberty to say any more at the moment, other than you might want to watch the proceedings of the Rural Affairs & Islands Committee tomorrow morning at 9am (this is the Committee that was due to begin its considerations of the Stage 2 amendments tomorrow). The meeting’s current agenda is here.

The Stage 2 amendments may be returned to the agenda tomorrow morning, or if not, it may become clear why they’ve been removed from tomorrow’s agenda…

Regardless of whether or not deliberations begin tomorrow, it’s quite clear that the Committee’s consideration of the Stage 2 amendments will need to take place over a number of sessions/weeks given the number of lodged amendments so far.

As it stands at the moment (Stage 2 amendments not due to even begin to be considered until 7 February), this goes against a Parliamentary motion passed just last week, ‘That the Parliament agrees that consideration of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill at stage 2 be completed by 9 February 2024‘.

The Rural Affairs & Islands Committee opens for business at 9am tomorrow (Weds 24 Jan) and should be available for viewing on Scottish Parliament TV (here).

UPDATE 24 January 2024: Decision to defer Wildlife Management Bill Stage 2 amendments unconvincingly based on ‘weather’ (here)

Just before Christmas a new scientific paper was published by experts from Leeds University, revealing that burning on deep peat is widespread on many Scottish grouse moors, and that, surprise surprise, land managers were ignoring the new (voluntary) Muirburn Code which suggests burning on peatland should be avoided (see here).

Today, one of the study’s authors, Dominick Spracklen, Professor of Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions at the University of Leeds has written an easy-to-understand blog about the study to help the public (and I daresay politicians engaging with the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Bill) understand the importance of minimising the extent of these peatland fires.

It’s well worth a read – here.