Bearskin Hats: Queen's Guards

Margaret Ferrier Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2022 Westminster Hall

[Margaret Ferrier (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Ind)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Fovargue. I thank the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk (Martyn Day) for opening the debate and the more than 100,000 members of the public who signed e-petition 602285, including 116 from my constituency. I also thank Alesha Dixon, Virginia Lewis-Jones and Andy Knott, co-sponsors of the petition and vocal advocates for animal welfare. I thank them for their contributions to this campaign.

The use of real bearskin in ceremonial caps is antiquated, costly and unnecessary. It should not take 100,000 signatures and a debate for the Government to acknowledge that. In fact, the opening line of the Government response to the petition is:

“Currently we have no plans to end the use of bearskins.”

Granted, the full response goes into slightly more depth, but it remains inadequate. The Ministry of Defence might argue that there are valid reasons to continue the use of bear pelts in its ceremonial garments, but to present the line in the response that

“Guardsmen take great pride in wearing the bearskin cap which is an iconic image of Britain”

as an argument to continue the practice is embarrassing.

There are alternative materials on the market, as PETA has demonstrated with ECOPEL, and faux fur has been the norm for decades. Vanity and cosmetic appeal should not form part of the debate as they do not hold water, never mind that the newly developed faux bearskin actually matches the current appearance requirements.

Advances in the technology that has developed faux fur, such as ECOPEL, mean that it is practically indistinguish-able from the real thing. Looking at the written Government response to the petition, we see that they say they need the material to perform, as we have heard, across “five requirements”. In addition to the need to “look smart”, those requirements are water absorption and penetration, appearance, drying rate and compression. The Government response states that ECOPEL performed satisfactorily in only one category, so as a result they reaffirmed their position that they will not be taking faux bearskin alternatives forward.

The MOD’s defence that the bearskin is obtained through “licenced culls” in Canada, and therefore the reduction in Britain’s procurement would not lead to a reduction in bear deaths, is weak. A vegetarian does not say, “Well, I can eat this steak because the cow is already dead and it has reached the supermarket shelves.” Morally, it is unreasonably to hide behind that argument.

Bear Conservation—a UK charity—and PETA have highlighted several worrying elements of the Canadian bear culls, noting that many provinces allow bear hunts in the spring, when the bears are just coming out of hibernation and are in a weakened state. Some provinces do not have restrictions on the hunting of mother bears with nursing cubs, which leads to the killing of entire bear families, or orphaned cubs abandoned to die because they cannot fend for themselves.

Recreational hunters are also granted licences to participate in bear hunting or culls, which brings in a worrying sporting element. PETA reports that some hunters use bows and arrows, meaning that the bears do not die instantly—it can be slow and painful death. By financing such activities, and by continuing to participate in the supply chain, taxpayer money is being spent on an industry that—whether or not it is Canadian state-sanctioned—profits from the suffering of bears. The financial cost of those caps is huge: £1 million was spent on 819 caps in seven years. That might not seem a lot of money in the context of Government projects and funding streams, but it is, especially in today’s economic climate, with a fast-growing cost of living crisis and families struggling to put food on the table or keep the lights on.

PETA has offered ECOPEL fur to the MOD, free of charge until 2030, which provides much-needed relief on the public purse. If it truly does not meet requirements—the lack of detail to explain why makes me wonder—why does MOD not offer to join PETA and ECOPEL to strengthen the product, build on the progress that has already been made, and make a faux fur product that does the job in appearance and practicality? Production of fur is illegal in the UK and, for the most part, so are imports—although there are exceptions—so continued use of real bearskins is just outsourcing animal cruelty overseas, and that is a hypocrisy. The overwhelming majority of the UK public—who will inevitably include some of the very guardsman who have to wear the caps—are strongly opposed to fur.

I do not want to be too hard on the MOD, because I know that truly excellent work is going on there—particularly with the current international state of play in Ukraine—but I worry that there is double standard. Unnecessary and even cruel practices are indirectly supported by the Department. I have received many emails from constituents about the use of MOD land for trail hunting, for example, as a smokescreen for fox hunting.

I appreciate the Minister for joining the debate, and I look forward to his reply. I understand that policy changes take time, but I hope that his response will not be just a fleshed-out repeat of the written response to the petition, that all the points that we have raised on behalf of our constituents will be considered and addressed, and that this debate will cause some forward movement away from the use of bearskins. We need to do better, and that is no longer a fringe view; it is the shared view of most of the British public, who do not want to see their hard-earned tax spent in such a way.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jeremy Quin]

I can perhaps help the hon. Gentleman by explaining the pathway that we have already trodden, right up until today, and we can see where we can go from there.

[Margaret Ferrier]

While we have been in this debate, I have contacted PETA and can confirm that its representatives are ready and waiting to meet the Minister, and ECOPEL’s offer still stands. They can bring the prototype hat to the meeting and samples of other faux fur. Is the Minister willing to meet PETA and ECOPEL to go through the options?

[Jeremy Quin]

Let me go through what we are doing. Finding a faux fur alternative is not without its challenges. Until 2007, research into faux fur replacements was conducted by Defence Clothing. It looked at more than 50 different types that used many different fibres in many combinations, both synthetic and natural. None were found to be acceptable and many created static and the fur stood on end.

In 2007, PETA submitted two samples that MOD agreed should be looked at in detail. A number of test methods were developed to compare the faux fur with real fur and assess its performance. Both samples were rejected as they allowed water penetration, did not shed water but absorbed it and did not shake it off.

Some seven years later, in 2014, PETA approached the MOD about submitting more faux fur samples and understandably wanted to know the required parameters. The tests devised previously were formalised and agreed with PETA as the starting point that the faux fur had to meet before being considered as a replacement.It was agreed that the test house would be Intertek and that the MOD would be sent a copy of any report.

In 2018, PETA submitted a sample to Intertek that was not taken forward as it showed unacceptable water penetration. In 2019, PETA submitted a sample to Intertek that had improved water-penetration results. However, although the water penetration was greatly reduced, the wet appearance was unacceptable, with rat-tails and dripping. The sample was not passed to the MOD to verify. In February 2020, PETA submitted a sample to Intertek that had greatly reduced water penetration but, again, a poor wet look.

Another sample was tested in December 2020 and there was nil penetration, although there were still problems with appearance. In 2021, the testing house shared its report with the MOD. I am afraid we do not have any detail on the fabric or the supplier, or the technical details, such as how to seal stitch holes and any seams needed to retain the waterproof barrier. It is yet to be established whether the sample could be formed over the wicker framework to resemble a real fur, and a trial is needed to gauge performance in use. For example, does the material succumb to static problems? What does it look like if it is wet? I was pleased to hear from the hon. Member for Bury South (Christian Wakeford) that a faux fur bearskin over a wicker frame has now been created, which sounds like good news. I was not aware of that before this debate.

Earlier this year, PETA issued another report, in conjunction with its campaign, claiming that all five tests that the MOD require have now been proven in the use of faux fur. Thus far, however, we are unsighted on the latest test results.

I wish to calm down excited Members but give them encouragement. The hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier) said that it was taking a long time to change policy. There is no policy issue here to be concerned about. If there is a faux fur alternative that works and overcomes the hurdles I have described, we will look quickly at affordability, sustainability and the other boxes that we need to tick. There is no opposition at all to the idea of using faux fur if it can be proved to work. As I say, in other circumstances we have actively and willingly embraced faux fur alternatives. We would be keen to see whether faux fur works in this instance.

The hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk said that there are questions to answer; if PETA helps us to answer those questions by providing to the experts in the Ministry of Defence the material—the faux fur bearskin—that PETA has created, we will without doubt have a look and consider the results seriously.

The House can rest assured that we will continue to keep these matters under review and, as I say, if PETA or any other body wishes to share the details of any tests with us, those details will be analysed. The best way to help to make us use faux fur in future is to share with us the data. If the data proves to be right and we can genuinely believe that there will be a viable faux fur alternative, we will be happy to take it forward and then test it against sustainability, affordability and other criteria.

At the moment, however, the jury is out. We need to see the results of the tests, which have not yet been shared with us, and evidence that faux fur can be made to work and can hit our five criteria. If we have that evidence, we will happily take faux fur on, but that is the hurdle that we need to get over, and it is in the hands of others. We are willing to receive any information.