Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Victory against coursers as new act strengthens law
The passing of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 gives police more powers to tackle rural crimes such as poaching
Alegal change lobbied for by Shooting Times contributor Ed Coles has passed its final hurdle and only now needs a minister’s decision to bring it into force. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill received Royal Assent on 28 April and is now an Act of Parliament.
The act amends some existing legislation by increasing the maximum penalty for the historic crime of “trespassing in pursuit of game” under the Game Act 1831 and the
Night Poaching Act 1828 to an unlimited fine and up to six months’ imprisonment.
The act also creates two new criminal offences: “trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare” and “being equipped to trespass with the intention of using a dog to search for or pursue a hare”. Both are punishable by an unlimited fine and up to six months in prison. Crucially, courts will also have the power to order those convicted of poaching to pay back costs incurred by the police in kennelling a dog and to disqualify an offender from owning or keeping a dog.
Mr Coles launched his campaign to have the law changed after experiencing years of threats and criminal damage from illegal coursing gangs on his Cambridgeshire shoot. The campaign culminated in a hugely successful petition that was signed more than 13,000 times.
Commenting on the changes, Mr Coles said: “It is great to see this finally become law but, as the police themselves have said, now the hard work begins. The police and courts now have what they need to deal with this issue.
I and many other rural workers up and down the country will be expecting them to use these powers to their fullest extent.”
The changes were welcomed by farmers and politicians. David Exwood, vice-president of the NFU, which also campaigned for the new laws, said: “It is fantastic news that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act gives the police more powers to protect rural communities from destructive and intimidating criminal activity.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel said earlier this year: “Illegal hare coursing has blighted rural communities for too long, resulting in criminal damage, threatening violence and intimidation against farmers and landowners. Those responsible are often involved in other criminal activities — including drugs and firearms offences. I have been a long-standing supporter for essential reforms to our laws to stop hare coursing, which is why we will act to prevent more people from suffering as a result of the actions of a law-breaking minority,” she added.
Matt Cross
“Hare coursing has blighted rural communities for too long”
The avian influenza outbreak in western France appears to have ended. An unprecedented epidemic of the most dangerous form of the disease swept through the region’s poultry units, with devastating effects on poultry farmers and on the supply of gamebird chicks and eggs for the UK market (News, 27 April and 4 May).
But the latest figures show that a combination of warming weather, lack of migratory wildfowl and draconian measures by the French government have finally broken the epidemic’s grip on the important Pays de la Loire region.
A single new case was recorded in Vendée and no new cases were recorded in Loire-atlantique between 26 April and 3 May. An outbreak in Maine-et-loire, which experts had feared would become a new epicentre for the disease, also seems to have ended, with no new cases reported in the past week.
With the disease now apparently under control, attention will turn to how much of the early part of the game shooting season can be saved and how the supply chain for gamebird chicks and eggs can be made more robust.