1 Explanatory report
1. The proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Game)
Order 2007 was laid before the House by the Secretary of State
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs ("the Department")
on 11 December 2006.
2. The purpose of the proposed Order is to amend
the Game Act 1831 ("the 1831 Act") and the Game Licences
Act 1860 ("the 1860 Act"), referred to collectively
as "the Game Acts", together with related and consequential
amendments to the Deer Act 1991 ("the 1991 Act"). The
Department considers that these provisions impose burdens which
are without justification or are unduly onerous and which reflect
a wish to control access to the hunting and killing of game species
in a way which is no longer appropriate.
3. The Game Acts established a system by which persons
who paid the required fees could be issued with licences which
permit them to kill, take or sell game in England and Wales. Each
of the Game Acts contains a subtly different definition of the
term "game", but collectively they include: pheasants;
partridges; red grouse; heath or moor game; black game; hares;
coneys (i.e. rabbits); woodcock; snipe and deer. The Game Acts
require that a person obtain a licence to kill or take these game
species and two separate licences to deal in them once killed.
4. The Department has explained in the Explanatory
Statement on the proposal that, prior to the 1831 Act, it was
unlawful for any person other than those appropriately qualified
by virtue of their social rank or ownership of land to take game
animals, and such persons, or their sons and heirs, were the only
people qualified to hold a game certificate. The Game Acts provided
that any person who paid the necessary fees could be granted a
licence to kill and take game; licences were issued by the Commissioners
of Inland Revenue (a power now transferred to the appropriate
district council, London borough council or the Common Council
of the City of London in England, and county council or county
borough council in Wales). At the time of the 1831 Act, the level
of fee payable for a game licence was set at the equivalent of
£1,600 at 2005 prices, thus putting the cost beyond the poorer
sections of society.[1]
The present cost of such a licence is between £2 and £6
and has not been increased since 1968. The Department considers
that it is not necessary to limit the lawful killing of game by
means of pricing out some of those who might wish to obtain a
licence and that the historic licensing system, which was brought
into being for the purpose of restricting access to hunting game,
is no longer justified.
5. The Game Acts also contain provisions to control
and licence the buying and selling of dead game animals and birds.
Their effect is to make it unlawful to deal in game birds during
the various close seasons and restrictively to define who may
sell game, from whom those persons may purchase it and to whom
they may sell it. Licences allowing persons to sell game are issued
by local authorities. Premises dealing in game must also be the
subject of a separate excise licence. No comprehensive information
about the cost of local authority licences has been compiled,
but the Department states that some authorities issue licences
free of charge while, of those which do charge, it is aware that
charges vary between £1 and £340. An excise licence
costs £4.
6. The 1831 Act makes it unlawful to sell game birds
after ten days have expired from the start of the close season.
However, the Game Act 1970 provides that it is legal to possess
game birds after this date in order to allow people to store game
in frozen form at home to eat during the close season and to allow
dealers to hold stocks of frozen game to sell after the end of
the close season.
7. Under the Deer Act 1991 any person not licensed
as a game dealer under the Game Acts may not lawfully sell, offer
or expose for sale or possess for sale venison in the period between
the expiry of the tenth day after the start of the close season
for deer and the end of the last day of the close season. Those
who are licensed to deal in game may sell venison throughout the
year. The 1991 Act also requires that all persons who deal in
venison as licensed game dealers must keep a record in a prescribed
form of all their purchases and receipts relating to this trade.
8. The Explanatory Statement indicates that successive
Governments have had an intention to reform the Game Acts for
some time and records that as far back as July 1994 the then Home
Secretary (Michael Howard) announced that licences to kill and
take game would be abolished.[2]
The Department encapsulates its reasons for proposing this Order
thus:
"The proposed draft Order seeks to reduce bureaucracy
for those killing, taking or dealing in game and to prevent unnecessary
restriction of their otherwise lawful activities. It will save
central Government resources which are currently being put into
the administration of a licensing system which is not serving
a useful purpose".[3]
9. The House has instructed us to examine the proposal
against the criteria specified in Standing Order No. 141(6) and
then, in the light of that examination, to report whether the
Government should proceed, whether amendments should be made,
or whether the Order should not be made.
10. Our discussion of matters arising from our examination
is set out below. Where a criterion specified in Standing Order
No. 141(6) is not discussed in the report, this indicates that
we have had no concerns to raise about that criterion. In the
course of our examination, we requested further information from
the Department about a number of issues relating to the proposal
and the text of our questions to the Department is reproduced
in Appendix A to this report. The Department's response is reproduced
as Appendix B.
1 Explanatory Statement, paragraph 30 Back
2
Explanatory Statement, paragraph 15, Commons Hansard 20 July 1994,
col 287 Back
3
Explanatory Statement, paragraph 6 Back
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