Game Acts to Change?
30 October 2006
The Government has announced its intention to update the nineteenth century Game Acts and is consulting stakeholders, including the NGO, over exactly what should be changed.
The Government's three main proposals contain nothing unexpected and should not create any problems for keepers. Indeed, they should simplify things to some extent and perhaps improve the conditions for game meat marketing. In an official response sent to the Government on 24 October, this is what the NGO said about each suggestion:
Abolition of the Game Licence
The Government says : the Game Licence serves no purpose, costs money to administer and so few people have one that it brings licensing into disrepute.
The NGO commented : "We support the abolition of the Game Licence. Although gamekeepers and the police have sometimes used failure to show a Game Licence as an initial reason to detain a suspected poacher, we accept that on balance the advantages of doing away with the licence outweigh the disadvantages and we therefore agree that it should go. In the longer term, we would like to see Government explore the possibility of a meaningful replacement to the game licence, with all revenue being put back into game management, much as the rod licences administered by the Environment Agency help to support fisheries management".
Game Dealers Licences
The Government says: both the local authority licence to deal in game and the excise licence available through Post Offices should go because they serve no useful purpose.
The NGO commented: "We support the abolition of both types of game dealers licence. The registration requirements of the recent food hygiene legislation provide a much more up to date and integrated approach."
Sales out of Season
The Government says: the ban on game sales during the summer was designed to stop poaching in the days before refrigeration and it interferes with the proper year-round marketing of game.
The NGO commented: "The ban on game sales out of season certainly causes confusion over what is legal and what is not. Some people think it also causes marketing problems, although others believe that the seasonality of game is one of its selling points. On balance the NGO's view is that the bans on selling out of season (gamebirds and deer) should both be scrapped. It will be important, however, to monitor the effect of this on poaching (of deer especially) and also to ensure that trading standards are enforced. We do not want to see sub-standard thawed-out pheasants being sold in July as ‘fresh game'."
When it came to other ideas ‘floated' in the Government's consultation document, however, the NGO was less supportive. Whilst we agreed that an old measure allowing Lords of the Manor to ‘appoint' gamekeepers was long since out of date and should go, we took exception to the idea that the game seasons should be transferred to the Wildlife and Countryside Act, where they could in theory be changed simply by order of the Secretary of State.
Move to Wildlife and Countryside Act
The NGO commented: "On balance the NGO is against this proposal. It really boils down to a lack of trust in future Ministers overseeing game management in a fair and sensible way. Recent bad experiences over the Hunting Act, farm payments, and waste management have not increased confidence. In the light of this background gamekeepers would need a great deal of convincing that the suggested changes would have overall benefit."
We have, however, asked that the catching up of gamebirds for breeding purposes should be made legal up to the middle of March and also brought to Defra's attention the need to ‘legalise' the killing of excess cock birds, for conservation reasons, when the catchers are emptied during February and early March.
Sunday Shooting
Finally, the NGO gave a resounding ‘no' to the suggestion that game shooting might be allowed on Sundays and Christmas Day.
The NGO commented: "The NGO National Committee, representing gamekeepers all over the country, is unanimous in the view that game shooting should remain illegal on Sundays and Christmas Day. This has nothing to do with gamekeepers and other shoot helpers ‘needing a rest', as the consultation document and some others have suggested. It is simply a tradition that we believe should be upheld. There should be no exemption for rough shooting or smaller scale shoots. They too have always been illegal on Sundays and Christmas Day and should remain so. Not least, it would be almost impossible to define a threshold to allow the one activity but not the other."