Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about bird shooting.
I appreciate your concerns. However, it is also important to acknowledge the benefits of game shooting. It brings vital income to rural communities, such as North Bedfordshire, and the land management for game shooting can bring significant benefits to the environment. For example, planting cover crops can help to boost biodiversity as heather also benefits lapwing, curlew, golden plover and the rare merlin. Furthermore, gamekeepers play a valuable role in predation control.
As regards your concerns about birds of prey, as you will know, it is illegal to kill, injure or take a hen harrier, or to intentionally or recklessly disturb its nesting in the UK. It is, of course, the case that the overwhelming majority of gamekeepers and land managers do not break the law. Shooting organisations also have a zero-tolerance policy on unlawful acts, and anyone convicted will face a large fine or potentially jail time. In April 2024, the National Wildlife Crime Unit launched the hen harrier taskforce. The Government must ensure that bird of prey crime remains a priority.
To your point about the economy, within the grouse shooting sector, for example, 3,000 full-time equivalent jobs are supported, contributing nearly £47 million to the UK economy. While these numbers may seem small compared with other sectors, the importance of grouse shooting is where that economic stimulus is felt. Upland rural communities can be some of the most remote and deprived in the country. I know that it is a huge challenge to promote inward investment or deliver efficient and effective public services in those communities. Alongside activities like farming, grouse shooting provides a vital economic pillar to keep our communities alive.
Banning grouse shooting would cause community centres such as pubs and hotels to shut, and those communities would be unable to rely on the positive benefits for employment, for families and for the viability of public services.
There is a code of practice for good shooting developed by the sector that applies to all game shooting, walked up, driven, wild bird or reared. This must be followed, and I support strict enforcement of it.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
