Tim Bonner: Lead ammunition ban comes closer

The government is due to respond by today (Thursday 13 March) to the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) proposals on restricting lead ammunition and there is no guarantee that it will agree the recommended five-year transition for lead shot in cartridges. HSE recommended that lead shot should be banned in all shotgun ammunition with a five-year transition and that lead should be prohibited for all rifle ammunition for live quarry shooting of calibre .243 and above with a three-year transition. This government has not generally taken a strict approach to deadlines so it would not be a huge surprise if this one drifted, and Ministers may also be considering the EU Commission’s proposals which it published two weeks ago. The Commission has rejected the recommendations of its agency for a five-year transition for lead in shotgun cartridges and suggested that a ban on lead shot for hunting should be introduced in three years. The UK process for introducing restrictions has run alongside that of the EU since Brexit so it is perfectly possible that the government will take the view that a three-year transition is sufficient for hunters in the UK as it has been judged in the EU.

As anyone who has followed this process will be aware, a ban on lead ammunition has been inevitable for many years. The major outstanding issue has always been when that ban would come in. If the UK government were to follow the EU lead that could mean a ban on lead shot for game shooting and other live quarry by 2028. The good news is that, largely as a result of the work done by the Alliance and its partner organisations in promoting preparedness and a voluntary transition away from lead ammunition, there are now a wide range of non-lead cartridges with bio-degradable wads available for nearly all guns and nearly all purposes. The volume of mainly steel cartridges which manufacturers will need to produce will have to grow to meet whatever timescale government sets, but effective and affordable products are available.

As I have argued for some time, moving away from lead ammunition anyway has vastly more benefits than downsides for game shooting. Two of the most powerful messages we have are that game shooting benefits the environment and produces healthy food, but both of these arguments are fundamentally compromised by the use of lead shot when other effective alternatives are available. The evidence is clear that lead kills wildfowl and other species including the grey partridge. It also makes the marketing of game far more difficult than it could and should be.

We will continue to argue that a five-year transition is the right period to allow all parts of the shotgun sector to move to non-lead cartridges and that a different timescale for hunting and other shotgun shooting disciplines is only likely to cause confusion. Lead is a toxic substance and whether the government settles on three years or five years for an eventual ban on lead shot, responsible game shooters should be making the change anyway so that we can promote game shooting in the best possible light.