Natural England: Gamebird Release Licensing

Question

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of Natural England’s approach to gamebird release licensing.

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. In so doing, I declare my farming and land management interests as set out in the register.

My Lords, Natural England is the licensing authority for most wildlife management issues in England and has the necessary delegated powers to grant game bird release licences on behalf of the Secretary of State. It has the required expertise, experience and technical management to fully assess the potential impacts of game bird releases, including direct access to specialists in this area.

My Lords, I pay tribute to the Minister for her hat-trick of Answers. The former Prime Minister promised to cut quangos and end regulators running riot. Instead, we have more of them, and Natural England has just been found by the High Court to have acted irrationally and beyond its powers. Wales is now heading down the same road, with Natural Resources Wales pursuing a licensing regime that risks ignoring the conservation case for shooting altogether. Does the Minister accept that unaccountable quangos are out of control on both sides of the border? When will the Government match their rhetoric with action?

Dan Corry did a review of the different arm’s-length bodies in Defra. That report has gone to the board. I have been at meetings where it has been discussed. We are actively looking at how we can make the arm’s-length bodies in Defra much more efficient.

Notwithstanding the technicalities of this Question—I congratulate my noble friend on doing three out of four—why do I get the impression from the past couple of years that Natural England seems to be opposed to any rural activity and any aspect of the rural way of life?

I disagree with my noble friend. Natural England gets a lot of attention in certain areas, but it also does a lot of work that is not properly recognised.

My Lords, will the Minister explain to Natural England that game crops put out tend to lead to a vast number of songbirds? It is not by chance that they go there to feed. Will she explain that to it so that it can perhaps stop trying to assault people who put down birds?

I am not aware of Natural England assaulting anybody. However, I do not think this Government have ever said that they are against high-quality shooting. I think we have said quite clearly that we support well-managed estates. In fact, I am going to be visiting one on Friday.

It has been estimated that shooting contributes more than £3 billion to the United Kingdom economy. Is that a figure that the noble Baroness supports?

I am very aware that there is information about the importance to the rural economy of the shooting industry. That is why the Government support well-managed shooting estates.

Given that the avian influenza risk has been rated high or very high continuously since October 2024 and that licensing conditions were designed specifically to limit transmission to protected birds, can the Minister confirm that the Government feel that this approach is working given that, currently, as I understand it, only one special protection area is expected to receive standard approval this season? Perhaps I may just say that I am very much looking forward to continuing to do lots of Defra Oral Questions with the noble Baroness in September and hopeful that we will do so.

I thank the noble Baroness. I jolly well hope that too; I am waiting to find out. She raised the important issue of avian influenza. It has caused some serious problems. This year was worse than last year—not as bad as a few years ago—and it is not going to go away, so the way we manage avian influenza is incredibly important. That has to include the way that we manage and release game birds.

My Lords, pursuant to the question from my noble friend Lord Rooker, is it not time that the Government looked at all these quangos, at whether they are value for money and add to public life and at whether issues should really be taken in for proper ministerial decision-making? Is it not time for a cull of the quangos?

As I mentioned earlier, the report carried out by Dan Corry looked specifically at all the arm’s-length bodies in Defra—and there are a lot of them—to see whether the work they are doing was efficient and necessary and whether we could work more effectively and efficiently by reviewing the way they operate.