Save Our Hen Harriers!

Hen Harrier persecution remains a serious wildlife crime strongly associated with land managed for driven grouse shooting. This is because these birds of prey are effectively competition - so to guarantee a good day out and big bag size for the shooters, there can be pressure on game keepers to take out the predators that will eat the grouse. In the last five years alone, over a hundred confirmed and suspected incidents have been recorded.

Decades of voluntary measures have not stopped these crimes. A licensing system would provide a meaningful deterrent: if an estate is linked to raptor persecution, it can lose its licence.

This means shoot owners would need to take responsibility for their employees behaviours and ensure that standards are met and there are no illegal practices on the estate if they want to retain their license. This would be a fair, practical approach that targets wrongdoing while allowing responsible shoots to continue. 

On January 29th, England saw its first ever Hen Harrier persecution case at York Magistrates Court, where a gamekeeper was convicted for conspiracy to kill a Hen Harrier. 

Whilst this successful prosecution is progress –  the video evidence shows how shocking, widespread and rarely successful these cases are compared with the real scale of illegal persecution.  

Most crimes happen in remote places, leaving few leads, and the criminal burden of proof is high. With more than 100 incidents in five years affecting Hen Harriers alone (and many more likely undetected), we can’t rely on convictions alone to change criminal behaviours.

Licensing of gamebird shooting - using a civil standard of proof (based on balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt) administered by the Police and Natural England to suspend or revoke the right to shoot where serious harm is suspected - is the lever that closes the enforcement gap. It’s a practical solution to this very real problem. 

It means that shoots must hold a licence in order to hunt gamebirds, making them accountable and ensuring they adhere to high environmental standards; and where the Police or Natural England find credible evidence of raptor persecution or other serious breaches, a licence can be suspended or revoked.

This creates real consequences for illegal killing whilst also rewarding land management best practice.

A licensing system will have a positive ecological impact on critical habitats, particularly our uplands which host Hen Harriers, Red Kites and Peregrines along with healthy peatlands that lock up carbon and reduce flood risk. Where intensive land management practices damage habitats or remove predators illegally, nature and communities lose out. Licensing brings land managed for gamebird shooting and an effective contribution to nature recovery closer together