Tim Bonner: Trail hunting ban imminent

On Tuesday (1 April 2025), Defra Minister Daniel Zeichner announced that the government would be consulting on its manifesto commitment to ban trail hunting “later this year”. This is the first confirmation of a time scale for new hunting legislation which we may well see in 2026.

The Minister was responding in an adjournment debate secured by Perran Moon, the Labour MP for Camborne and Redruth, who was calling for the strengthening of the Hunting Act 2004 including banning trail hunting, removing exemptions and introducing custodial sentences for those who break the law. He was, however, clear that he has “no issue with drag hunting”.

The last time Labour was in government Tony Blair wasted 700 hours of parliamentary time banning traditional hunting and it seems utter madness that it is now planning to spend even more time on trail hunting. Ministers know perfectly well that this is an issue which is completely irrelevant to the vast majority of voters and our polling has consistently shown that the public rates hunting below nearly every other current issue in terms of political priorities.

The government is, however, stuck with a manifesto commitment that was born of the obsession of a section of MPs and activists for whom hunting has always been a cipher for the class war that they are not allowed to fight. So, even after the bitter and politically costly battles of the 1990s and early 2000s, which saw Labour ejected from the countryside for a political generation, we are fated to return to another divisive debate over hunting with hounds.

This time, however, the issue is not the hunting of wild mammals: it is whether the law that was passed in 2004 works. Our opponents argue that it is unenforceable, and that people are breaking the law with impunity, but the government’s own figures refute this. Ministry of Justice prosecution statistics show just how ‘successful’ the Hunting Act has been, if you measure success in terms of court cases rather than any improvement in animal welfare.

Since 2010 alone there have been 744 prosecutions under the Act leading to 416 convictions, more than under any other wildlife law and twice the number of convictions as the next most prosecuted wildlife offence. Of course, few of these convictions relate to registered hunts which is the problem for the anti-hunting lobby. The real reason they think the Hunting Act has failed is because hunts still exist. The eradication of the hunting community has always been the primary, if unspoken, aim of animal rights activists and their supporters in the Labour party. They will never be satisfied until the last hunt has closed and will be attempting to ensure that the new legislation achieves that goal.

Hunting is in a challenging position that includes being faced with a massive government majority. Navigating a route through the complex politics of the coming years and emerging with a way forward for hunting will not be easy, but it will be made infinitely harder if we do not keep our own house in order. The Alliance will be committing everything to the fight, but scrutiny of hunting activity will be intense and, unfair as it may seem, we will be judged on the behaviour of the worst. Now is the moment for hunting to redouble its commitment to high standards in all things, most especially in the conduct of trail hunting, if we are to secure a future for hunts.

If you value the future of trail hunting, and the communities and livelihoods it supports, please donate to the Campaign for Hunting today. Your support will help us continue to promote and protect the rural way of life, ensuring our voice remains strong when it matters most.