Petitions

Petition PE187, which came from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, called on the Scottish Parliament to allow limited licensed culling of raptors. Maureen Macmillan, who was appointed as the committee's reporter on the petition, reported to the committee initially in June 2000 and the extract of her report is included in the cover note. The committee agreed to the report's recommendation to write to Scottish Natural Heritage to seek clarification on the legal status of the petitioners' request. We have received a response from SNH and a letter from the Scottish Gamekeepers Association, copies of both of which have been circulated.Before I ask for members' views, does Maureen Macmillan, as our original reporter, wish to comment on the developments since the report?

I am sure that members will recall the petition from the SGA, which was concerned at the effect on the grouse population of the increasing numbers of raptors. The petition requested a derogation from the wild birds directive, which the petitioners thought might be possible if grouse were defined as livestock.The SNH response to our request for clarification of the legal position is given in paragraphs 7 to 11 of the cover note. Although SNH does not close the door on derogation, it notes that derogation would be a last resort, for which substantial evidence would be needed to show that diversion methods do not work.At the time, the committee did not take the view that shooting or culling raptors was an option. We thought that any derogation from the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 would have to be for a measure less serious than culling, such as the disruption of nesting birds.Paragraph 10 of the cover note indicates that a moorland working group has been established, but the SGA is not listed as a member. It is important that the SGA is not left out on a limb. The SGA should be included in talks with organisations such as those that are represented on the moorland working group so that a way forward can be found to address the SGA's concerns or to reach some compromise. The situation is similar to what happened with the petition from the Scottish Homing Union, where there seemed to be a stand-off between the two sides.It is important that the groups get together to discuss how they can make progress on aspects such as tactics to divert raptors from the grouse. Those tactics need to work, but the SGA feels that the tactics that are being suggested by groups such as SNH or RSPB Scotland are not workable. More research needs to be done.

For the sake of clarity, which of the options that are outlined in the paper would you prefer?

Option B would be the appropriate way forward.

The recommendation is that there needs to be some kind of joint approach and joint working. We need agreement on the way forward.

Perhaps we could also say that the SGA should be incorporated into the moorland working group.

Paragraph 8 of the cover note quotes SNH's contention that:"an application to derogate from the Birds Directive would need to follow on from a substantial amount of work and evidence to show that non-lethal methods would not work".That has not been done yet. Other methods to protect the grouse population from raptors have not been investigated. As far as I can see, the SGA has not been closely involved with the working groups.

I agree.

The committee was not prepared to agree with the SGA's call for the culling of raptors; in our view, the petition went too far. We discussed the possibility of methods that did not go as far as shooting or killing raptors, such as pricking eggs or disrupting nesting sites. Such methods would also require a derogation from the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and Scottish Natural Heritage says that every other possibility would have to be examined before that was done.I want the SGA to be involved. Other organisations should not be conducting experiments while the SGA is standing on the sidelines saying that the method does not work. We should recommend that the SGA should be involved and consulted during the experiments and field trials, just as we recommended that the Scottish Homing Union should be involved in examining methods of stopping raptors taking homing pigeons. That situation has been worked out, and a joint group that involves the Scottish Homing Union and environmental organisations is working on the matter. I do not see why the SGA should not be able to work with other organisations on this matter.

I do not know.

My advice from the clerk is that SNH set up the working group.

We are in danger of repeating debates that we have already had—some of us were on the committee for the previous debate—and I am anxious to avoid that.I agree with Adam Ingram. We need to state specifically that consideration should be given to involving the SGA in the moorland working group. If we can make that amendment to option B, that would be reasonable. Ultimately, there is disagreement and we will not resolve the matter in this committee—we do not have the expertise—but if we could promote dialogue, that would be a step forward.

I am afraid that that is not the case under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

We should write to the Scottish Executive and the SGA to outline the views that members have expressed today. We should indicate that our strong recommendation is that the SGA should be incorporated into the moorland working group. We should double-check whether SNH is the sponsoring body and write to it about the matter.Do members agree to take that approach as the way forward?Members indicated agreement.