Natural England: Gamebird Release Licensing

Baroness Hayman of Ullock Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In so doing, I declare my farming and land management interests as set out in the register.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, Natural England is the licensing authority for most wildlife management issues in England and has the necessary delegated powers to grant game bird release licences on behalf of the Secretary of State. It has the required expertise, experience and technical management to fully assess the potential impacts of game bird releases, including direct access to specialists in this area.

[Lord Harlech (Con)]

My Lords, I pay tribute to the Minister for her hat-trick of Answers. The former Prime Minister promised to cut quangos and end regulators running riot. Instead, we have more of them, and Natural England has just been found by the High Court to have acted irrationally and beyond its powers. Wales is now heading down the same road, with Natural Resources Wales pursuing a licensing regime that risks ignoring the conservation case for shooting altogether. Does the Minister accept that unaccountable quangos are out of control on both sides of the border? When will the Government match their rhetoric with action?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Dan Corry did a review of the different arm’s-length bodies in Defra. That report has gone to the board. I have been at meetings where it has been discussed. We are actively looking at how we can make the arm’s-length bodies in Defra much more efficient.

[Lord Rooker (Lab)]

Notwithstanding the technicalities of this Question—I congratulate my noble friend on doing three out of four—why do I get the impression from the past couple of years that Natural England seems to be opposed to any rural activity and any aspect of the rural way of life?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I disagree with my noble friend. Natural England gets a lot of attention in certain areas, but it also does a lot of work that is not properly recognised.

[Lord Robathan (Con)]

My Lords, will the Minister explain to Natural England that game crops put out tend to lead to a vast number of songbirds? It is not by chance that they go there to feed. Will she explain that to it so that it can perhaps stop trying to assault people who put down birds?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I am not aware of Natural England assaulting anybody. However, I do not think this Government have ever said that they are against high-quality shooting. I think we have said quite clearly that we support well-managed estates. In fact, I am going to be visiting one on Friday.

[Viscount Goschen (Con)]

It has been estimated that shooting contributes more than £3 billion to the United Kingdom economy. Is that a figure that the noble Baroness supports?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I am very aware that there is information about the importance to the rural economy of the shooting industry. That is why the Government support well-managed shooting estates.

[Baroness Grender (LD)]

Given that the avian influenza risk has been rated high or very high continuously since October 2024 and that licensing conditions were designed specifically to limit transmission to protected birds, can the Minister confirm that the Government feel that this approach is working given that, currently, as I understand it, only one special protection area is expected to receive standard approval this season? Perhaps I may just say that I am very much looking forward to continuing to do lots of Defra Oral Questions with the noble Baroness in September and hopeful that we will do so.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I thank the noble Baroness. I jolly well hope that too; I am waiting to find out. She raised the important issue of avian influenza. It has caused some serious problems. This year was worse than last year—not as bad as a few years ago—and it is not going to go away, so the way we manage avian influenza is incredibly important. That has to include the way that we manage and release game birds.

[Lord Spellar (Lab)]

My Lords, pursuant to the question from my noble friend Lord Rooker, is it not time that the Government looked at all these quangos, at whether they are value for money and add to public life and at whether issues should really be taken in for proper ministerial decision-making? Is it not time for a cull of the quangos?

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As I mentioned earlier, the report carried out by Dan Corry looked specifically at all the arm’s-length bodies in Defra—and there are a lot of them—to see whether the work they are doing was efficient and necessary and whether we could work more effectively and efficiently by reviewing the way they operate.

[Lord Roborough (Con)]

My Lords, the highly critical judgment against Natural England in this court case is the latest in a long list of failures: Ebbsfleet jumping spiders, fish discos, bat tunnels, pony culls and, even as we sit in this Chamber today, dangerous wildfires in upland areas following Natural England policy. Will this Government, under their new leadership, ensure that Natural England follows science, not prejudice, and focuses on delivering the best outcomes for nature and for our economy? I declare my interests as a farmer, landowner, developer and sporting rights owner.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

First, we have not been culling ponies. A lot was written about that, but I am not aware of any ponies that were culled or that are going to be culled. The Dartmoor pony is an important species in that part of the country. As for the other issues, we will obviously be looking at the judgment and analysing it, and we will respond to it in due course.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

I am sure that the Minister will recall the report of September last year from the coalition of wildlife organisations which noted how wildlife habitats around England are continuing to decline. The Government have a legal obligation to protect 30% of land and sea in the UK for nature by 2030, a pledge made in 2020 by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, yet only 2.83% of England is well protected for nature, and that is a decline year on year. As Natural England has said, it plans to appeal this court ruling. However that turns out, will the Government ensure that there is an adequate legal framework for Natural England and other bodies to meet the protection for nature that the Government are legally bound to provide?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

As the noble Baroness said, that target was put in place some time ago, which is why, since we came into government, we have tried to make changes and crack on, because it has become more and more challenging to meet every year that passes. It is why we revised the Environmental Improvement Plan and why we have been investing more in sustainable farming and small farming. If we are genuinely going to meet these targets, we will have to be very ambitious in what we are doing.

[Lord Beamish (Lab)]

My Lords, local shoots are important to many local rural economies. I would be interested to know the view of my noble friend the Minister on the position that National England takes in doing economic impact studies on the effects of its policies on local farming communities.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I am not aware of the specific policies to which my noble friend refers, because there are lots of different areas where Natural England is involved. If we are talking about shooting licences, which is where this started, Natural England will look at each licence on its own merits and make a decision thereon.

[Lord Fuller (Con)]

My Lords, further to the comments from my noble friend Lord Roborough, Natural England is confused as to its role. Is it regulator, adviser, operator, competitor or pricer? There are multiple conflicts of interest. When will the Government help Natural England understand what its role truly should be?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I feel like saying, “I refer to my previous answer”. This comes back to the fact that we are reviewing the roles and responsibilities of all the different arm’s-length bodies in Defra to ensure that there is clarity about what each is responsible for, that there is no overlap and that they are as efficient and as best value for money as they can be.

[Lord Douglas-Miller (Con)]

My Lords, in relation to the current chair of Natural England, who was appointed for his third consecutive term last year, is it the normal process and procedure for people to have three terms in office, and does the Minister still have confidence in him?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I can confirm that I have confidence in the chair of Natural England. My understanding is that he was appointed for a third term because there was a new Government and it was decided that continuity was important.

[Lord Gardiner of Kimble (Con)]

My Lords, to play in what the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, said, I think that what has broken down is trust; that is, trust on the part of so many in the rural communities in relation to what has appeared to be imposed upon them. I encourage the Minister, with her rural credentials, to seek to rebuild this sense of working together rather than against communities. It is all very well saying that this is not happening; it is happening. That is the feeling of rural communities. I ask and, indeed, implore the Minister to ensure that Defra, in the work that it is doing, really drills down with some of these bodies that they are meant to be working for people, not against them.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

I hope I can reassure the noble Lord that I always believe in working together and constructively. When I am involved in issues in Defra, that is an approach that I always encourage, because people get better understanding of what is important and what is needed if they work together. We have a new Secretary of State, as I am sure noble Lords are aware. She was a Minister in Defra before, which is helpful, and I shall make sure that she understands the concerns of this House.