Grouse shooting to require licence in Scotland

Scottish grouse moors will be controlled by a strict licensing regime after the industry failed to combat the illegal persecution of birds of prey, the Scottish government has announced.

Mairi Gougeon, an environment minister, said work on drafting new legislation would start immediately, several years earlier than recommended by an expert review into the regulation of grouse moors led by Prof Alan Werritty last year.

Gougeon said self-regulation by the grouse shooting industry had failed, as had the government’s previous attempts to suppress persecution, including making moor owners liable for illegal persecution by their employees and withdrawing bird management licences.

Werritty had proposed giving the industry five years as a final chance to self-regulate; ministers wanted to act now, Gougeon said. “The fact raptor persecution continues in spite of all these measures suggests [that] self-regulation alone will not be enough to end the illegal killing of raptors, and further intervention is now required,” she said.

The shooting industry said it was dismayed. It risked grouse moors closing down, with scores of job losses among game keepers and estate staff, and would damage other vulnerable rural businesses, including hotels, country sports shops and suppliers.

In a joint statement issued by five bodies representing landowners, gamekeepers and shooting enthusiasts, the industry said Scotland already had the UK’s strictest anti-persecution measures and incidents were declining.

Ministers had “paved the way for a very uncertain future for many rural people by announcing that it intends to introduce a licensing scheme for grouse moors which interferes with legitimate business activities and threatens to engulf the sector in a blizzard of red tape that is unprecedented and out of all proportion”, they said.

Liz Smith, environment spokeswoman for the Scottish Tories, said: “It is yet another SNP attack on rural Scotland which will have deeply damaging and long lasting consequences.”

The latest Police Scotland data showed there were 24 confirmed raptor persecution cases in Scotland in 2017-2018, as well as the suspicious disappearance of eight satellite-tagged hen harriers and golden eagles. Those included egg theft, nest disturbance, poisoning shooting and trapping.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said it recorded 28 incidents in Scotland in 2019, including disappearances of satellite-tagged golden eagles and hen harriers on grouse moors, particularly in the Strathbraan area of Perthshire.

In August 2019, a gamekeeper called Alan Wilson escaped jail after pleading guilty to nine wildlife offences including killing two goshawks and three buzzards, and keeping banned pesticides of a type used by gamekeepers to kill birds of prey.

The RSPB’s annual bird crime report said that in 2019, four of the five worst areas in the UK for raptor persecution over the previous decade were in Scotland: the Highlands, Scottish Borders, Aberdeenshire and Angus.

Gougeon said the Scottish government also planned to regulate the use of medicated grit, used on grouse to control infections, and to license muirburn, a controversial practice of burning old heather to promote younger growth for grouse to feed on.

A consultation exercise on new legislation would begin after May’s Scottish elections – an undertaking which relies on the Scottish National party forming the next government.

The Scottish government’s measures will intensify pressure on ministers in London to take action against wildlife offences on English grouse moors; North Yorkshire is the UK’s worst area for bird of prey persecution, according to the RSPB report.

The closure of Scottish grouse moors after licensing comes into force is likely to increase demand for driven grouse shooting in England. Environment ministers in England promised last year to ban muirburn on climate grounds, as it releases CO2, often on peatlands, but those measures have stalled.

Ian Thomson, the head of investigations for RSPB Scotland, said persecution incidents had continued during the Covid crisis. A white-tailed eagle has been poisoned, a short-eared owl shot and four satellite-tagged hen harriers are missing. The satellite tag of a golden eagle that disappeared several years ago also turned up in a river.

“As ever, these cases represent the tip of the iceberg, with the lack of successful breeding raptors across much of the uplands of eastern and southern Scotland a silent witness to the extent of these crimes,” Thomson said.