{"id":456200,"date":"2026-03-04T00:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456200\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T00:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T00:53:09","slug":"naturescot-reinstates-use-of-general-licences-on-raeshaw-estate-during-appeal-process-raptor-persecution-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/456200\/","title":{"rendered":"NatureScot reinstates use of General Licences on Raeshaw Estate during appeal process \u2013 Raptor Persecution UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 10 February 2026, NatureScot imposed a three-year General Licence restriction on Raeshaw Estate in the Scottish Borders (and on neighbouring Watherston Wood, which is understood to be under separate management to Raeshaw), in relation to the\u00a0shooting\/killing of Golden Eagle \u2018Merrick\u2019 in October 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Camera trap photo of golden eagle Merrick, from South Scotland Golden Eagle Project<\/p>\n

Following the announcement, a representative of Raeshaw Estate, believed to be under the management of a company owned by \u2018grouse moor guru\u2019 Mark Osborne, claimed the restriction was \u201cwholly unjustified\u201d and said the estate intended to appeal the decision (see here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

According to NatureScot\u2019s Framework<\/a> for implementing General Licence restrictions, <\/p>\n

\u2018Where a decision is made to impose a restriction, the Affected Parties will be entitled to appeal the decision within 14 days of the date of the decision. An appeal must be made in writing to the Head of Licensing and must set out the grounds upon which it is proposed that the appeal be allowed.<\/p>\n

\u2018An appeal shall have the effect of suspending the restriction from the date the appeal is received by the Head of Licensing until the date of the Decision on Appeal\u2019.<\/p>\n

As the restriction notification has now been removed from NatureScot\u2019s website, I assume that Raeshaw Estate has lodged a written appeal and did so within the 14 day time limit. <\/p>\n

This means that Raeshaw Estate can, until further notice, go back to using General Licences 1, 2 & 3 to lawfully kill hundreds if not thousands of certain bird species (e.g. crows) on the estate without having to report its activities to anybody.<\/p>\n

NatureScot\u2019s Framework states that the Head of Licensing will seek to make a decision on the appeal within four weeks. Let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t drag on any longer than that.<\/p>\n

It is also apparent that the representatives of Watherston Wood have also lodged an appeal, although as far as I\u2019m aware, the killing of so-called \u2018pest\u2019 bird species doesn\u2019t take place in the wood anyway so perhaps the appeal has been made as a matter of principle rather than an attempt to reinstate the use of General Licences 1, 2 and 3.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Screen grab from\u00a0Who Owns Scotland<\/a>\u00a0website, annotated by RPUK, showing the proximity of Merrick\u2019s last known location and the Raeshaw Estate (shaded in blue)<\/p>\n

General Licence restrictions, which are based on a civil burden of proof if there is insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution, were introduced by then Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse in 2014 as a way of tackling the continuing persecution of birds of prey on gamebird shooting estates across Scotland. <\/p>\n

These restrictions don\u2019t stop the sanctioned estates from shooting gamebirds, nor do they limit their gamebird management activities other than requiring the estate to complete a bit of paperwork, but they were specifically designed to act as a \u2018reputational driver\u2019.\u00a0I think it\u2019s fair to say that Wheelhouse\u2019s intentions were good but ultimately have proved ineffective.<\/p>\n

This is an unprecedented second General Licence restriction imposed on Raeshaw Estate.<\/p>\n

Raeshaw Estate was one of the first estates to receive a General Licence restriction in 2015, based on \u2018clear police evidence\u2019 that wildlife crimes had been committed there although there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any individual\u00a0(see\u00a0here<\/a>). Representatives of Raeshaw Estate applied for a\u00a0judicial review<\/a>\u00a0of NatureScot\u2019s decision but the Court of Session upheld NatureScot\u2019s procedures and ruled them lawful (here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Whilst under that first General Licence restriction, Raeshaw Estate applied for, and was granted, a number of \u2018individual licences\u2019 so the gamekeepers could continue to kill certain species as part of the estate\u2019s grouse moor management plan (quite a lot of birds were lawfully killed \u2013 see\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

However, in 2017 the individual licence was revoked by NatureScot due to non-compliance issues and more suspected wildlife crime offences (see\u00a0here<\/a>). <\/p>\n

I await NatureScot\u2019s decision on Raeshaw Estate\u2019s latest appeal with interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 10 February 2026, NatureScot imposed a three-year General Licence restriction on Raeshaw Estate in the Scottish Borders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-456200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}