In December 2024, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published their final proposals to the government on the restriction of the use of lead in ammunition. These proposals concern both shotgun and rifle ammunition, with HSE suggesting a ban on the sale and use of lead shot for both live quarry and clay pigeon shooting after a 5-year transition period from enactment. Similarly the sale and use lead bullets of .243 calibre and above will be outlawed for live quarry shooting following a 3-year transition period. It is not suggested that lead rifle ammunition of calibres smaller than .243 and lead airgun ammunition will be banned. These proposals are now on the desks of politicians and civil servants in Westminster, Cardiff and Edinburgh, who have three months to respond.
It is expected that these proposals will be accepted without amendment as these proposals come after a series of in-depth consultations and research projects into the viability of a lead ammunition ban with stakeholders of every ilk, including the Countryside Alliance. It is through these consultations that the transition periods initially proposed for shotgun and rifle lead ammunition were lengthened from three to five years and 18 months to three years, respectively. We should hear responses from the various governments in the first quarter of 2025, which will likely see a timeline put in place for the sale and use of lead shotgun ammunition to be an offence from Spring 2030.
It is now close to five years since the Countryside Alliance, along with several other shooting organisations called for a 5-year voluntary transition away from the use of lead shot in game shooting. A lot has changed since that call was made, including the Covid pandemic and several wars. Nevertheless good progress has been made in this transition, despite such uncontrollable setbacks. Far from “selling out” game shooting, the move away from lead is for the long-term sustainability of shooting – of which lead shot is a monumental detractor. The Countryside Alliance continues to call for all those who shoot game who haven’t yet moved away from lead to consider doing so for the future of the sport they love – the sooner the better.
As pledged in Labour’s election manifesto, it is expected that full cost recovery firearms and shotgun licence fees will be introduced in 2025. This has been on the cards for quite some time, and is now a certainty after the last government failed to update the licensing fee structure in line with inflation, which was last altered in 2014, before the 2024 general election was called. Whilst it is only right that there is a fee increase of some description, after all, inflation has affected all aspects of life, what we can, and will, argue is that the cost that should be recovered is for an efficient system that delivers for users. That is a far cry from the current firearms licensing system which could hardly be designed to be more inefficient. More on the potential threats to shooting from proposed fee increases can be read here. The Countryside Alliance, through its own lines and through its position on the British Shooting Sports Council is engaging with police chiefs, politicians and civil servants to protect safe and legal gun ownership and ensure a fair fee system is brought in along with thoroughly improved performance from a number of abysmally underachieving police licensing departments.
In the next month the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) firearms lead DCC David Gardner is expected to publish a “league table” of the 43 police firearms licensing departments’ performance. The release of these data is hoped to help raise firearms licensing performance to a consistently good level across all 43 separate authorities, rather than the “postcode lottery” that it currently resembles.
In February Defra is expected to publish the latest iteration of the general licences, GL43 and GL45, that allow the release of game birds on Special Areas of Conservation and certain Special Protection Areas, respectively. Details are far from confirmed, but indications are that drastic changes to these licences are not to be expected. The Countryside Alliance continues to engage with Defra civil servants to foster timely and proportionate licences that are based in peer-reviewed science and fully consider the economic, ecological and social benefits of shooting.
Another Labour manifesto commitment was to “ban the use of snare traps”, although a timeline for this policy is currently unknown, it must be kept in mind. The Countryside Alliance is focussed on ensuring that indispensable wildlife conservation tools like the humane restraint, which contain features scientifically proven to adhere to and exceed the Agreement on International Humane Trapping Standards (AIHTS), are not conflated with archaic and non-AIHTS-compliant snare traps. If this advice is ignored, the Labour party would be lining itself up to fail in another of its manifesto commitments to “promote biodiversity and protect our landscapes and wildlife”.
In Wales, a blanket licensing scheme for gamebird release remains the major political issue for shooting. In November 2023, the quango Natural Resources Wales (NRW) recommended the Welsh Government implement such a scheme for the 2025/26 season. Initially intended for the 2024/25 season, the delay to 2025/26 was caused by the colossal number of responses to the NRW consultation, with over 12,900 Alliance supporters signing and completing our e-campaign. Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance said:
“A massive response from the Welsh public has delayed the proposals, but the potential impact on the conservation, communities and the economy of rural Wales remain.
This is a blatant, prejudiced and completely unjustified attack on the rural way of life. The government in Cardiff is increasingly at odds with the countryside and it is at risk of further alienating the rural community. Ministers need to think very carefully about whether they accept NRW’s advice. We will be working with partners from across the rural sector to pursue every possible avenue and we will fight back against this attack on the rural way of life.”
If NRW and the Welsh government are to proceed with this unnecessary and unjustifiable legislation for the 2025/26 shooting season, it should be expected in the first half of the year, given the majority of game birds for the coming season will released in June.
Last year saw the introduction of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, which brought in the licensing of grouse shoots, licensing of all muirburn and the prohibition of the use of several varieties of pest control measure, including the use of humane restraints.
This year attention may turn to the results of the Scottish government’s “Call for Evidence on Phasing Out the Use of Cages in the Gamebird and Quail Sectors”, which concluded in July 2024. This came as part of their 2023/24 Programme for Government (read in full here), which contained a commitment to “Consult on phasing out cages for gamebirds and laying hens”. Not as wide-reaching or impactful as the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act, the results of this call for evidence, when published, will nevertheless require careful consideration by all stakeholders.