| OUR POLICIES
Informing legislation with sound science © Hugh Nutt
Alastair Leake Director of Policy and Parliamentary Affairs
(L-R) Geoff Coates (facilitator for the Strathmore Wildlife Cluster), Andrew Ogilvie-Wedderburn, Will Henderson, George Fleming, Pete Wishart MP, Ross Macleod (GWCT) and Brian Kaye admiring a fantastic mix of white mustard, phacelia, vetch, crimson clover and white clover sown in early May as part of an Agri-Environment Climate Scheme. © GWCT
6 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2019
England Sustainable soil management and food security added to the Agriculture Bill. Withdrawal of General Licences causes confusion and difficulties for gamekeepers and conservationists alike. We worked closely with Defra helping to design the Environmental Land Management Scheme. Throughout the year we saw legislation being developed to cover our departure from the European Union. Little of it made it through Parliament, delayed principally by the difficulties of the Withdrawal Bill, but this gave us time to develop our own policies on important matters such as the Environment Bill and the Agriculture Bill. Despite the ambition set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the subject and importance of sustainable soil management was not mentioned in the first iteration of the Agriculture Bill. Even more surprisingly, neither was food security. We highlighted these omissions by submitting written evidence to Government consultations and enquiries and raised them in Westminster during debates run by our All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Game & Wildlife Conservation. It is rewarding, therefore, to see Bills redrafted and brought back to the Commons with such omissions addressed, even if unsatisfactorily, as occurred with the Agriculture Bill, allowing us to revisit the detail as it passes through the Committee Stage. This year also brought the withdrawal of General Licences, causing confusion and difficulties for gamekeepers and conservationists alike (see page 9). The interpretation of wildlife law in the UK has been a ticking time bomb that we have been aware of for some time. In fact, our first formal APPG meeting held back in 2010 was entitled ‘Common-sense conservation’ and dealt with this very issue and led indirectly to the Law Commission Review of Wildlife Law which was published back in 2015. In this review the Commission proposed that the level of protection afforded to a species was determined by its conservation status, allowing adjustments to be made to the level of control or protection required. This seems very sensible to us, but it involves discarding a number of protective Acts of Parliament at a politically sensitive time for environmental governance. As such, it is unlikely to be brought forward at this time. We have been working constructively with Defra in helping to design the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) which will replace Countryside Stewardship, funded by money modulated from the Basic Farm Payment which is due to be phased out over the coming years. Our continual involvement with such schemes means we have a good idea about what works. There is little point having a scheme full of options which is so overly complex that it deters participation. As the Chairman of Natural England commented to me on a visit to our Allerton Project: “It seems to me that those that have the most to say about conservation
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