Charities call on Scottish government to close loophole in law on protected birds

Wildlife charities have condemned a decision by Scotland's nature conservation agency to water down a new law designed to combat the illegal killing of birds of prey.

NatureScot, a government agency, has decided to greatly reduce the area of land affected by a new licensing regime for grouse moors, after legal threats by shooting estates and land owners.

Campaign groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) and Revive Scotland are furious, and have called on the Scottish government to close the loophole urgently.

Anne McCall, the director of RSPB Scotland, said: "We believe that these changes completely undermine the primary intention of this legislation to tackle raptor persecution and will only give comfort to those who intend to keep killing our birds of prey.

"Leaders across the rest of the UK are looking to Scotland and this legislation to show them the art of the possible, with an example that they might soon follow. But the promise of a real deterrent to criminality on Scotland's grouse moors has been allowed to descend into a shambles."

The new licences, introduced in August as a further sanction after decades of wildlife crime on grouse moors, had been intended to cover an entire country estate to prevent gamekeepers persecuting protected birds out of sight.

But this week NatureScot admitted the Wildlife Management and Muirburn Act, passed by a large majority at Holyrood in March this year, was badly drafted.

It will now allow the estates affected to designate only the areas where shooting takes place – a restriction which critics say could extend for only hundreds of metres rather than hundreds of hectares.

The Scottish government and NatureScot said they were considering amendments to the act, but refused to specify what will be done. It is thought they could add in new clauses to a forthcoming land reform bill to strengthen the legislation.

"We implemented a licensing scheme for grouse shooting earlier this year to better protect Scotland's birds of prey," a Scottish government spokesperson said. "We are considering whether additional measures are needed to address concerns with the licensing scheme, and if so, we will set out details in due course."

Shooting groups had warned NatureScot the act was unworkable but when it came into force in August Prof Colin Galbraith, NatureScot's chair, had insisted the agency would stand firm. He told the Guardian shooting estates should have no trouble with wide-ranging licences: "If they're not doing anything wrong, why worry about it?"

NatureScot said it still believed the revised licences were robust. It has added a new licence condition which requires grouse moor managers to take "reasonable steps" to make sure no birds are persecuted elsewhere on their estate.

Its critics argue that measure is easily sidestepped, because grouse moor managers can show their gamekeepers have been told what the law says but still allow them to carry out illegal persecution.

Robbie Marsland, the LACS director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: "Deliberately killing a protected bird of prey was a wildlife crime before the new legislation was enacted, and remains so, despite this shambles.

"But any suggestion that 'grouse moor management' only applies to a small area around the shooting butts is clearly ludicrous. For example, when the League conducted an 18-month survey of six shooting estates we found traps and snares littered across the entire estates."

The agency said: "This is a new licence for NatureScot and, as with all our licences, we continually review and develop our processes to identify improvements. These changes will ensure our grouse licences are legally robust, while continuing to act as a strong deterrent to wildlife crime as was the legislation's intent."