Across the UK, the countryside and our way of life continues to be threatened by government legislatures that misunderstand hunting and shooting, says Tim Bonner in this article from My Countryside magazine.
The politics of hunting, gun ownership and game shooting are live issues not just because of the new government’s manifesto, but also because of the approach being taken in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The Countryside Alliance is engaged in every issue at every level, not least because it is impossible to separate the impact of the decisions being taken in different parliaments.
The Labour Party’s manifesto says the new Westminster government will “ban trail hunting”. This is a less specific promise than that in the 2019 manifesto which was a detailed pledge to strengthen the Hunting Act by increasing penalties, expanding the offence of hunting and removing exemptions. What the new commitment actually means is not clear, although the Defra Secretary, Steve Reed, has confirmed that this should not impact on drag hunting. The Alliance has been clear that new legislation is unjustified and unnecessary but, given the scale of the Labour majority, it is inevitable. We will continue to argue that an attack on legal trail hunting or exempt hunting would be in direct contradiction of what the last Labour government said when it passed the Hunting Act in 2004. There is currently no suggestion that the government will bring forward proposals early in the parliament although we expect it will come under increasing pressure from animal rights groups and some MPs.
Meanwhile, in Scotland, packs are adapting to the new world of licensed fox control with the help of the Alliance and, as Jake Swindells writes elsewhere in the magazine, successfully challenging the byzantine process the Scottish government has created. This is a different battle to that in England and Wales, but it is a crucial one as the Scottish parliament has accepted the case for the use of hounds in fox control, at least in respect of searching and flushing from cover. Of course, this is not something that has been legal in England in Wales for nearly 20 years, but the argument will now move to Northern Ireland where Stormont Assembly member John Blair is trying – for the second time – to get a Bill passed which bans hunting. Bizarrely, Mr Blair has referenced the Scottish legislation and Lord Bonomy’s review for the Scottish government which completely contradicts his proposals, not least by concluding that “the use of packs of hounds to flush out foxes to be shot remains a significant pest control measure” and that banning the use of packs “could seriously compromise effective pest control in the country.” How Mr Blair will seek to navigate those findings is anyone’s guess, although sadly in Northern Ireland, as elsewhere, the hunting debate seems to be more about politics than wildlife management.
The next manifesto pledge on Labour’s agenda in Westminster is likely to be for “full cost recovery for firearms licences.” This may sound like just a bit of bureaucracy, but the practical implications would be an increase of roughly £200 per applicant for the issue or renewal of a five-year shotgun certificate or firearms licence. Depending on how it is applied this could equate to an increase of up to 400%, which would have a significant impact on the level of applications and renewals with obvious knock-on effects on the sustainability of gun shops, shooting businesses and social networks reliant on shooting.
The Alliance is clear that gun owners should not be asked to bear the cost of an inefficient and outdated licensing system. There are 43 separate licensing bodies in the UK as individual police forces still operate as licensing bodies. The gap between the worst and best performing forces is enormous and, as the centralisation of licensing after the reorganisation of policing in Scotland has shown, there are huge improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and consistency that could be made. The Alliance advocates a single licensing body and argues that licence holders should pay what an efficient system should cost, and not be penalised for the current inefficiency.
While Labour does not have a commitment to restricting firearms licensing further, there is a significant lobby in the parliamentary party for increased restrictions on gun ownership and in particular the licensing of some or all shotguns as Section 1 firearms. In practical terms that would mean each gun being licensed separately and applicants being able to show the purpose of gun ownership for instance by membership of a shooting ground or syndicate.
Meanwhile, we await the Welsh government’s delayed proposals for licensing the release of pheasants and red-legged partridges after its agency, Natural Resources Wales, advised it to introduce such a scheme. Again, this is not just crucial for game shooting in Wales, but also for the direction of travel in England where the release of pheasants and partridges is already subject to licences on and around protected sites. The introduction of licensing for all releasing in Wales is bound to fuel calls for a similar approach in England and in Scotland, which has just introduced a licensing scheme for grouse shooting.
The politics of Westminster and the countryside are challenging enough, but the increasing influence of Stormont, the Senedd and Holyrood, mean that none of these legislatures can be dealt with in isolation. The Alliance continues to navigate this increasingly complex political world to promote and protect the countryside and our way of life.