Have a read of the relevant section of the Firearms Act (The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 Section 16) (Google will provide).
If you have a written agreement to shoot on land then you are classed as the occupier, and therefore it is allowed. (Well, that's the way it appears to my lay eye) otherwise how would people take paying guests out to shoot without having their own rifle?
Have a read of the relevant section of the Firearms Act (The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 Section 16) (Google will provide).
If you have a written agreement to shoot on land then you are classed as the occupier, and therefore it is allowed. (Well, that's the way it appears to my lay eye) otherwise how would people take paying guests out to shoot without having their own rifle?
The act uses the word "occupier" and although the word occupier is not defined in the act, however the FCC stated that the definition in the Wildlife and Countryside Act be used,
This states that ‘“occupier” in relation to any land, other than the
foreshore, includes any person having any right of hunting, shooting, fishing or taking
game or fish’.
To me, in this context, a right is something that, in law, cannot be taken away and as such gives the holder/owner of that right legal control over it to do with it as he so wishes.
Certainly when giving someone permission to shoot on the farm I am giving them exactly that, permission to shoot. I most certainly am not conferring on them any right to do so.
Interestingly the ACPO FELWG discussed this very subject, reported in their latest published minutes:
17. SECTION 11(5) EXEMPTION
17.1 Helen Rees asked for some concensus on the definition of “Occupier” for the purposes
of S11(5) of the Firearms Act. BASC, NGO and Gamekeepers Association interpret it to
mean the individual has a right to shoot which means they effecitvely have permission
from the landowner. Helen’s view on 11(5) is that a person can benefit from non
exemption if they have a shooting right (a binding contract with the landowner).
17.2 Graham Wididcome to address this in the Guidance in the near future. Ministers are
looking as changing the terminology of “occupier”.
17.3 Barry Collacott concluded by reading a quote with regards to the definition of “occupier”
from the BASC website “Issues arising from S11(5). No definition of occupier in the
Firearms Act
but generally means someone with an interest in the land that is
enforceable at law”.
17.4 All agreed this was a good definition