UK Parliament / Open data

Driven Grouse Shooting

Proceeding contribution from Therese Coffey (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Monday, 31 October 2016. It occurred during e-petition debate on Driven Grouse Shooting.

With respect to the hon. Lady, I have less time than the shadow Front Bencher took, so I will try to get through the points. If there is any chance I can take an intervention at the end, I will. On moorland management and the evidence of non-compliance on burning, if the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) can share that with me, I will share that with Natural England.

The issue of agri-environment funding has been raised. I expect we will continue to support our environment once we have left the EU and that, in the meantime, payments will be made to support environmentally beneficial land management, including the management of specific wildlife habitats, and works to improve the quality of the environment for wildlife, water quality and carbon capture.

As was mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Bill Wiggin), the uplands have complex land ownership and tenure arrangements, with many areas designated as common land. Many agreements result in funding going to grazing tenancies, which are critical to undertaking the beneficial management of the moors. I disagree with the hon. Member for Bristol East, who suggested that grouse shooting has been

subsidised. I want to make it clear that agri-environment payments are not subsidies and they are not paid to support shooting activities.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
616 cc276-7WH 
Session
2016-17
Chamber / Committee
Westminster Hall
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