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GAME PRESERVATION (AMENDMENT) BILL

EXPLANATORY AND FINANCIAL MEMORANDUM

INTRODUCTION

  1. This Explanatory and Financial Memorandum relates to the Game Preservation (Amendment) Bill. The Department of the Environment (the Department) has prepared the Memorandum in order to assist the reader of the Bill with a proper understanding of the Bill and to help inform debate on it. The Memorandum does not form part of the Bill and has not been endorsed by the Assembly.

  2. The Memorandum needs to be read in conjunction with the Bill. It does not, and is not meant to be, a comprehensive description of the Bill. So where a clause or part of a clause does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.

    3. BACKGROUND AND POLICY OBJECTIVES

  3. The principal policy objective of the Bill is to amend the Game Preservation Act (Northern Ireland) 1928 as amended ("the 1928 Act") to extend the partridge shooting season to include September each year. The open season for partridge ends on 31 January the following year. This change will bring the open season in NI into line with the remainder of the UK. The rest of the year remains a close season where it is an offence to wilfully take, kill or destroy any partridges.

  4. The amendment is in response to a number of representations made by local enterprise to extend the partridge shooting season for commercial purposes. The extension is fully supported by organisations representing shooting interests throughout Northern Ireland.

  5. There are no conservation objections to the proposal as the native grey partridge is now extinct in Northern Ireland due to lack of suitable habitat and there are presently no plans to re-introduce the native grey species by means of a specific initiative. All partridges presently shot during the open season are artificially reared and introduced, under controlled conditions to the wild by shoot organisers/game farmers, to be fully acclimatised for the commencement of the open shooting season.

  6. The Bill will consolidate the provisions of an earlier statutory rule extending the open season for snipe (SRO 1954/129).

  7. The Department is taking this opportunity to make provision in the Bill to amend section 7 of the 1928 Act which prescribes the close seasons for game, in order to enable the close seasons specified for hare, grouse and any other game-birds to be varied in future by means of subordinate legislation should the need arise.

  8. The Bill will also make a minor amendment to section 7A of the 1928 Act which deals with the absolute protection of game and rabbits at certain times. This section makes provision for the lawful shooting of rabbits on any agricultural land by the occupier or any person resident with or employed by him. This will be amended to read "any person authorised by him". This is for uniformity of terminology alongside the provisions of the more recent Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985.

  9. Finally the Bill will dispense with an unnecessary time-limiting restriction in relation to orders made by the Minister under section 7(3) of the 1928 Act and require all orders made by the Minister under the 1928 Act to be subject to negative resolution of the Assembly.

    10. CONSULTATION

  10. A full public consultation was carried out and in addition to the Environment Committee and other statutory consultees, some 370 organisations/individuals were asked how they felt about the extension proposal. These included the Department's statutory advisory body on nature conservation - the Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside; the relevant environmental Non-Governmental Organisations including the RSPB, the Game Conservancy Trust, the Ulster Wildlife Trust and the National Trust; all district councils, organisations representing farmers and landowners, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation and all licensed shooting clubs. In all 66 responses were received, the great majority favouring the proposed amendment.

    11. OPTIONS CONSIDERED

  11. The options considered were to make no changes to the legislation or amend it as proposed for commercial reasons. The Department decided to proceed on the grounds that it is satisfied that there are no sound objections on conservation grounds to extending the open season for partridges.

    12. OVERVIEW

  12. The Bill has 3 Clauses.

    13. COMMENTARY ON CLAUSES
    Clause 1:Close seasons

    This clause provides for-

    An amendment to section 7(1) of the 1928 Act, paragraph (c) of which specifies the close season for any game bird other than grouse. Subsection (2) inserts a new paragraph (bb) which introduces a separate close season for all types of partridges and snipe to run from 1 February to 31 August each year. It is during this new reduced period that it will still be an offence to wilfully take, kill or destroy partridges;

    Clause 2: Shooting of rabbits on agricultural land

    This clause provides for a minor amendment to section 7A of the 1928 Act which deals with the absolute protection of game and rabbits at certain times. It replaces the term "resident with or employed" with the term "authorised" - for the reason referred to in paragraph 8 above.

    Clause 3: Orders under the 1928 Act

    This clause provides for all orders made by the Minister under the 1928 Act to be subject to negative resolution of the Assembly. At present there is no Assembly control over such orders. The existing provision in section 7F(4) requiring that every order made under the 1928 Act be published in the Belfast Gazette is accordingly superseded.

    FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF THE BILL

  13. The Department's research indicates potential benefits for commercial shoot organisers. They will attract overseas visitors and their families, with spin-off benefits for local business such as provision of accommodation, hospitality and transport.

  14. Although the majority of shoots in Northern Ireland are not run for commercial purposes many do sell some days of shooting to defray shoot costs over the season.

    15. EFFECTS ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

  15. No evidence of adverse or differential impact in relation to any of the groups mentioned in section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 has been identified.

    16. HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

  16. The Bill is considered to be compatible with Human Rights obligations.

    17. SUMMARY OF THE REGULATORY APPRAISAL

  17. A full Regulatory Impact Assessment of the costs and benefits resulting from the proposed measures is not considered necessary, since they relate to an existing regulatory regime and do not impose any significant additional costs/savings.

    18. SECRETARY OF STATE`S CONSENT

  18. The Bill includes provisions which have the effect of amending the offence created in section 7 of the Game Preservation Act (Northern Ireland) 1928, a reserved matter under section 4(1) Schedule 3 paragraph 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. The Secretary of State has consented under section 10(3)(b) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to the Assembly considering the Bill.

    19. LEGISLATIVE COMPETENCE

  19. The Minister for the Department of the Environment has made the following statement under section 9 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998:

    20. "In my view the Game Preservation (Amendment) Bill would be within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly."