Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of schools attending events run by the British Association of Shooting and Conservation and Gamekeepers and Landowners, as has occurred in Sheffield; and whether this has occurred in schools in other areas throughout England.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not collect information on educational visits and has not, therefore, made any assessment on schools attending events run by the British Association of Shooting and Conservation and Gamekeepers and Landowners.
The decision to undertake educational visits is entirely a matter for individual schools. However, the department provides guidance to help schools understand their obligations when undertaking educational visits and other out of school activities. Among other things, this includes advice on carrying out risk assessments and on seeking consent from parents.
Asked by: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the (a) economic contribution of the shooting and conservation industry to the UK each year, and (b) potential effect on that contribution of proposals to increase the cost of firearm renewal.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to ensuring an efficient and effective firearms licensing system and to achieving full cost recovery for the police.
We have commenced a review of firearms licensing fees for police issued certificates, which were last revised in 2015. The review will be informed by the work of a Firearms Fees Working Group, chaired by the Home Office, which will carry out a detailed review of the current cost to the police of administering firearms licensing and develop proposals for revised fees, in accordance with HM Treasury guidance. Proposals for new fees will be subject to public consultation in due course. We will prepare an impact assessment that will include consideration of the effect of new fee levels on rural communities, including on farmers and other occupations that require the use of a firearm or shotgun.
In line with HM Treasury guidance, new fees will be set at a level to recover the full cost to police forces of administering firearms licensing. Fees are collected by each police force and will offset the costs of their firearms licensing team and the work needed to support an effective licensing system.
Asked by: Holly Lynch (Labour - Halifax)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the membership of the firearms licensing fees working group.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government is committed to ensuring an efficient and effective firearms licensing system and to achieving full cost recovery for the police. We have commenced a review of firearms licensing fees for police issued certificates, which will be informed by the work of a Firearms Fees Working Group. The Working Group will carry out a detailed review of the cost to the police of administering firearms licensing and develop proposals for revised fees, in accordance with HM Treasury Guidance.
The Firearms Fees Working Group will be chaired by the Home Office, and comprise representatives of the following organisations:
The proposals for new fees for police issued certificates will be subject to public consultation in due course.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether a licence is required to release gamebirds into the wild within an Avian Influenza disease control zone in the event that those birds are still considered livestock as a result of being significantly dependent on the provision of food, water or shelter for their survival.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Following confirmation of notifiable avian influenza in poultry or other captive birds, disease control zones are put in place surrounding the infected premises. Within these disease control zones, a range of controls are in place to prevent the spread of disease, including restrictions on the movement of poultry and other captive birds (including kept gamebirds), carcases, eggs, used poultry litter and manure. Definitive requirements are set out in the declaration published on GOV.UK for each disease control zone. Keepers can check where disease control zones are located in GB and if they are in zone on the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) interactive map.
The release of gamebirds in avian influenza disease control zones is prohibited, no licenses permitting this activity can be granted.
Guidance for gamebird keepers on avian influenza has been prepared by game shooting, research and game conservation bodies and is endorsed by Defra, Scottish Government, Welsh Government and DAERA in Northern Ireland and is available via the Game Farmers Association website.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in support of voluntary efforts to phase out the use of lead shot by game hunters in England; and what plans they have, if any, to introduce a requirement to replace the use of lead shot with other materials which do not harm the countryside.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Nine high-profile shooting organisations released a joint statement in 2020 calling for an end to lead in ammunition used for taking live quarry with shotguns within five years. We welcomed this move away from lead and are committed to ensuring a sustainable, mutually beneficial relationship between shooting and conservation. By 2020, the use of lead ammunition in England had already been restricted in specific circumstances by existing legislation– including being prohibited in or over sites of special scientific interest including wetlands.
In spring 2021, Defra asked the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare a UK REACH restriction dossier for lead ammunition. The HSE and the EA are considering the evidence of risk posed by lead in ammunition on human health and the environment and, therefore, the case for introducing a UK REACH restriction on lead in ammunition. This process will take approximately two years (from spring 2021), after which the Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Ministers, will make a decision on the basis of this review. Further information can be found at:
Asked by: Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what extra controls they have placed on the (1) import, and (2) release, of pheasants in light of the high levels of avian flu in Europe; and what assessment they have made of the impact on pheasant releases on the (a) prevalence, and (b) spread, of the disease in the UK.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Poultry and poultry products, which include chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, pigeon (bred for meat), partridge, quail, guinea fowl and pheasants, cannot be imported into the UK from within avian influenza disease control zones in European Union (EU) Member States. With regards to imports from non-EU Third Countries, the UK trade rules approve only a very limited number of countries outside the EU for import into the UK. All live poultry and poultry related products must be certified as disease free and therefore suitable for trade.
Effective animal disease control is one of Defra’s key priorities and all disease control and prevention measures including those applied to game birds are made on the basis of risk assessments containing the latest scientific and ornithological evidence and veterinary advice. Kept game birds cannot be moved on or off a premises in a disease control zone except under licence and the release of game birds is not permitted within any avian influenza disease control zone. Outside of disease control zones, game birds can be released into the wild, and game birds that have already been released are classified as wild birds and the person who released the game birds is no longer classed as the ‘keeper’ of the birds.
Defra works closely with the Game Farmers Association and other game shooting, research and game conservation bodies to provide advice on how game farmers can maintain good biosecurity at their premises and reduce the risk of the spread of avian influenza.
In addition, in order to inform risk assessments and understand how avian influenza is distributed geographically and in different types of bird, including released game birds, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) engages in year-round avian influenza surveillance of dead wild birds in Great Britain submitted via public reports and warden patrols. Findings from this surveillance have included pheasants during the 2020/2021 outbreak and the risk of incursion of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5 in wild birds is currently assessed as very high (with low uncertainty) for England and high (with high uncertainty) for Wales and Scotland. With regards to game bird releases, these are completed in earlier autumn typically prior to the high-risk period for avian influenza. The risk associated with gamebird activities which occur during the higher risk period for avian influenza, including shooting and gathering up of gamebirds (which occur overwinter and in the spring respectively) have been assessed by APHA and are used to inform decisions regarding control measures. The risk assessments are published and available on GOV.UK.
Contact either directly or indirectly with infected wild birds is the principal route of spread of avian influenza and the risk of poultry exposure to HPAI H5 across Great Britain is currently assessed as medium (with low uncertainty) where good biosecurity is applied, but high (with low uncertainty) where there are substantial biosecurity breaches or poor biosecurity. If, however, stringent biosecurity is in place the risk would be low for these premises.
Asked by: Charles Walker (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the work being undertaken by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation on (a) promoting lead free and environmentally sustainable shotgun and rifle ammunition and (b) the eventual voluntary phase out of lead ammunition in the next four years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
I continue to welcome the British Association for Shooting and Conservation’s decision to promote the use of lead-free ammunition and its ambition to see an end to lead and single-use plastics in ammunition for taking live quarry within the next four years.
Lead is highly toxic and the majority of its potential uses are regulated to control exposure to humans and the environment. A large volume of lead ammunition is discharged every year over the countryside and research suggests up to a hundred thousand wildfowl die annually in the UK by lead poisoning from spent gunshot.
During debates on the Environment Bill, Defra Ministers recognised the importance of restricting the use of lead shot, and asked officials to look further into the most effective options for tackling the issue.
As a result, Defra has asked the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA) to prepare a UK REACH restriction dossier for lead ammunition. HSE and EA will examine the evidence of risks posed by it on human health and the environment and consider the case for introducing a restriction on lead in ammunition. The process will take approximately two years after which the Secretary of State (with the consent of Scottish and Welsh Ministers) will, on the basis of this review, make a decision on whether to further restrict the use of lead ammunition. These restrictions will explore a ban on the sale of lead shot as well as its use.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the activity of (a) supertrawlers, (b) bottom trawlers and (c) fly shooting in UK Marine Protected Areas with the Government’s aim to protect 30 per cent of UK oceans by 2030.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a devolved competency and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities assess on a site by site basis which fishing activities could prevent them from achieving their conservation objectives and determine what management is required to meet the site conservation objectives.
'Supertrawlers' generally target pelagic species of fish within the water column and are unlikely to interact with the seabed habitats, such as reef and sediment habitats, for which most MPAs are designated. Both bottom trawlers and fly-shooters interact with the seabed and are therefore likely to impact seabed habitats. The compatibility of these activities will depend on the features protected in each site. If the site assessments conclude that this type of fishing poses a risk to the conservation objectives of a MPA, the relevant regulator would implement management measures.
Management measures will be introduced on a site by site basis to ensure that measures can be tailored to meet the conservation objectives of each site, without unnecessarily restricting fishing activity. We believe using byelaws, rather than fishing vessel licences, to manage fishing in MPAs is the best approach to further site conservation objectives. All existing MPAs in our offshore waters will be protected from fishing activities which could prevent them from achieving their conservation objectives through a three-year byelaw programme being undertaken by the MMO.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Government’s plans to introduce management measures in 40 English offshore Marine Protected Areas over the next three years, if he will make it his policy for those plans to include site-wide bans on (a) bottom trawlers, (b) supertrawlers and (c) fly-shooting.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are a devolved competency and the information provided therefore relates to England only.
The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) and the Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities assess on a site by site basis which fishing activities could prevent them from achieving their conservation objectives and determine what management is required to meet the site conservation objectives.
'Supertrawlers' generally target pelagic species of fish within the water column and are unlikely to interact with the seabed habitats, such as reef and sediment habitats, for which most MPAs are designated. Both bottom trawlers and fly-shooters interact with the seabed and are therefore likely to impact seabed habitats. The compatibility of these activities will depend on the features protected in each site. If the site assessments conclude that this type of fishing poses a risk to the conservation objectives of a MPA, the relevant regulator would implement management measures.
Management measures will be introduced on a site by site basis to ensure that measures can be tailored to meet the conservation objectives of each site, without unnecessarily restricting fishing activity. We believe using byelaws, rather than fishing vessel licences, to manage fishing in MPAs is the best approach to further site conservation objectives. All existing MPAs in our offshore waters will be protected from fishing activities which could prevent them from achieving their conservation objectives through a three-year byelaw programme being undertaken by the MMO.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of European protected areas are in unfavourable status as a result of (a) shooting and (b) other outdoor sports and leisure recreation activities.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Natural England publishes information on the condition of Protected Sites in England at https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SearchEngland.aspx. All land which forms part of a terrestrial European Site (i.e. a Special Area of Conservation (‘SAC’) and/or a Special Protection Area (‘SPA’)) is also notified as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (‘SSSI’).
Natural England records the reasons for unfavourable site condition but there is no specific category for “shooting’ or ‘outdoor sport, leisure and recreation’. Of the total area of SSSI land that is currently reported as being in unfavourable condition, 2.37% (3223 hectares) is recorded as unfavourable due to public access, disturbance and illicit vehicle use, (which may include outdoor sport, leisure and recreational activity). 0.25% (317.08 hectares) is due to game management, which may include shooting activity.