Jim Paice is a keen shooter, a long term member of BASC and a board member of the GCWT. During the last parliament he was Chairman of the All-Party Group on Shooting and Conservation, for which BASC provided the secretariat, and a regular speaker at the Game Fair and at BASC receptions at the Conservative party conference. He will take responsibility for rural affairs and animal welfare. His colleagues at DEFRA are Richard Benyon - who shoots and is Vice Chairman of the Standing Conference on Country Sports - and Lord Henley, another shooter who's been a BASC member for more than two decades. In other words three out of four DEFRA Ministers (the sponsoring department for shooting) are shooters. The Secretary of State, Caroline Spelman has a background in farming.
BASC negotiated the exemption for using a terrier underground to protect game birds at the time of the Hunting Act. It allows anyone to use the terrier as long as it is for the stated purpose and written permission is possessed from the landowner. There is a DEFRA approved code of practice which must be observed and you can find it on the BASC website. This was a notable amendment to the Hunting Act at the time because securing it meant persuading a group of Labour MPs to vote for terrierwork even though they opposed it in principle and were advised against it by the RSPCA and LACS. It was to Alun Michael's credit - he was the Labour Minister for the Hunting Bill - that he went out of his way to keep his promise that shooting would not be damaged by the Hunting Act.
The new coalition agreement carries within it a pledge not to "repeal" the Hunting Act but to hold a free vote on a motion "enabling the House of Commons to express its view on the repeal of the Hunting Act." This is a retreat from the previous formula of a vote on repeal within a government Bill. There must be some doubt that there exists a majority in the Commons for repeal at present. The LIb Dems tend to split 50/50 on the issue.
But a step in the right direction many would rightly say
David