Game Shoot Standards

CLA members who run game shoots will wonder why, with the risk from Avian Influenza, rising insurance and game handling costs, scrutiny from the VAT authorities, and the wider mounting pressures on their shoots, their own representative organisations are now asking more from them. Many members contacted my own team at the CLA with concerns that, as they already comply with the Code of Good Shooting Practice (the Code), any Assurance scheme is likely to be expensive and unnecessary.

The background to the launch of the Game Shoot Standards assurance scheme is important. We have watched with mounting concern as a broadly urban Government addressed the rural community with a lack of understanding and a strong instinct to reach for legislation and regulation to impose its will on the countryside. We have noted the influence of, and challenges raised, by the very large inward migration of new people into the countryside, people who do not have the understanding we share of shooting and country matters.

We have seen numerous attacks on our sport, and many proposals for new regulations that affect what we do. We predicted and have observed the well funded “victorious” animal rights lobby turn its attention from hunting to shooting and fishing. These pressures can only increase over time.

So while game shooting is under no credible immediate risk of a ban, we can see that the status quo is no longer sufficient. Shoot managers and their representative bodies will need weapons in their armoury to address the wider and more subtle attacks we face. One of these, we suggest, will be Game Shoot Assurance.

CLA is of course at the same time working with partners on many other shooting issues, including the game rearing code to be made following the Animal Welfare Act, Avian Influenza, Firearms and the Crime and Disorder Bill, to name a few.

The Code of Good Shooting Practice Steering Committee, lead by Bill Tyrwhitt Drake, and encompassing all the shooting organisations, has worked long hours with the leading experts in the field to seek to help define standards which we can justify on objective grounds, and which are aimed to deliver sustainable shooting, best placed to defend itself against the onslaught of legislation. The Code is not perfect, but it does set out precepts we can all subscribe to. However, and importantly, it suffers from two significant wants.

Firstly, it relies wholly on self assessment. There is no independent assurance that any shoot has complied with the Code, and this lays shooting open to unwarranted and unsubstantiated accusations by those who wish us ill.

Secondly, existing provisions for dealing with any breaches of the Code of Good Shooting Practice have been found wanting. We judge that the sanction of peer pressure and self control is simply not enough.

In 2002, Alun Michael (then Minister for Rural Affairs) told the audience at the CLA Game Fair that 'the future of shooting is secure, but it's in your hands.' Since then the shooting organisations have been working together to find a way of giving teeth to the Code. Our settled judgement is that we need a solution based in shooting, with standards set by shooting men and women, but one that has the respect of Government, and which offers an alternative to regulation by the state. Many options were considered, but none were found more fit for this purpose than an assurance scheme.

Farm Assurance offers a model. Designed by farmers for farmers, the various schemes, whilst initially unpopular in some quarters (and subject to inevitable teething problems), have grown to encompass as much as 80% of UK production. Most farm schemes are now not only audited by the assessors, but the schemes themselves are also approved under the Government’s own system. The little red tractor is now widely recognised as a sign of quality, and offers assurance to customers and the wider public, as well as Government. Farms that are assured can not only claim, but can demonstrate they meet high standards.

The Code team worked in partnership for two years on the Game Shoot Standards assurance scheme, undertaking wide-ranging consultation with members and independent experts. CLA appointed its own review working party to seek to ensure that comments raised by members in the wide ranging consultation held earlier this year were taken into account. The scheme incorporates the 2003 Code which covers the conduct of guns, bird welfare, land management and delivery of wider conservation benefits as well as healthy food and considerations of good neighbourliness.

The scheme will be certificated by CMi plc, an independent, third party organisation experienced in delivery of a wide range of assurance schemes including the LEAF scheme in agriculture, using specially trained assessors who have a deep understanding and interest in game shooting, and costs as little as £95 plus VAT.

Shoots will be certificated following a successful initial assessment visit and interview. An annual visit (which may take place at any time during the year) is also required to ensure that standards are maintained and good practice consistently applied.

Assured Shoots will be offered a charter mark, a visible standard, and the opportunity to be included on the Game Shoot Standards website. We fully expect assured shoots to benefit not only from this, and the comfort that they are working to defend their shoots, but also the scheme will be working to bring other benefits such as better marketing opportunities for game, and, perhaps, reduced insurance costs.

We need a wide range of leading game shoots, large and small, to engage and sign up for the pilot year. Only in this way can the organisers be sure that the scheme standards are right, and that scheme members are getting the service, and any help and assistance they need.

CLA is targeting leading members with their own shoots, and those who let their shooting to tenants, to get behind the scheme.

For further details, and information on how to apply, click here and visit the Game Shoot Standards website

Game Shoot Standards is sponsored by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, Countryside Alliance, Country Land and Business Association, National Gamekeepers Organisation, Game Farmers Association, Scottish Rural Property and Business Association, Scottish Gamekeepers Association, National Game Dealers Association and supported by sporting agents represented by Strutt and Parker, with advice from the Game Conservancy Trust.