BREAKING NEWS:
The Scottish Government has committed to closing the loophole on the grouse moor licences that were sabotaged last year by the powerful grouse shooting lobby.
If you recall, grouse moor licensing was introduced as part of the Wildlife Management & Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024, as a result of the continued illegal killing of birds of prey on grouse moors and the associated difficulties of identifying an individual suspect and prosecuting them.
The idea was that a licence to shoot Red Grouse could be amended / withdrawn / revoked by NatureScot if evidence showed that illegal raptor persecution had taken place (importantly, based on the civil burden of proof, i.e. balance of probability, rather than the criminal burden of proof, i.e. beyond reasonable doubt). It was expected that the licence would cover an estate’s entire landholding, not just the areas where Red Grouse are shot, because raptor persecution crimes often take place beyond the boundary of the moor (e.g. in woodland).
However, last November, the licences were significantly weakened after legal threats from the grouse shooting industry. Instead of now covering an entire estate, it was announced that the licence holder could decide on the extent of the area the licence covered, specifically the area where Red Grouse are ‘taken or killed’.
Effectively, this could mean simply drawing an arbitrary line around their grouse butts, denoting the reach of a shotgun pellet, and argue that THAT is the area where they take/kill grouse and thus that should be the extent of the licensable area:
Photo of a line of grouse-shooting butts by Richard Cross, annotated by RPUK
There has been a year of prolonged campaigning to get this loophole closed, led by Green MSP Mark Ruskell and RSPB Scotland, and this work has now paid off.
In a letter to the Scottish Parliament’s Rural Affairs & Islands Committee (the committee scrutinising the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill), published today, Agriculture Minister Jim Fairlie has committed to introducing an amendment at Stage 2 of the Bill to close off this loophole.
Here’s his letter:
We haven’t yet seen the details of Mr Fairlie’s proposed amendment but the deadline for MSPs to submit amendments at Stage 2 closes on 13 November 2025, so we shouldn’t have long to wait.
There’s more to say about this welcome move, and all the hard work that has gone on behind the scenes to reach this stage. I’ll be blogging more about this and I’ll also be discussing it at this weekend’s REVIVE conference in Perth (tickets still available – here).
For now, I see this as very, very good news.