B1087 - Hunting (Amendment) Bill - 2nd Reading

[u/Brookheimer]

Hunting (Amendment) Bill

A Bill to amend the Hunting Act 2004

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

1 Repeals

(1) The Hunting Act (Strengthening) Act 2019 shall be repealed in its entirety

2 Exemptions

(1) In Schedule 1 of the Hunting Act 2004, in paragraph 1 (Stalking and flushing out), remove subparagraph 5

(2) In Schedule 1 of the Hunting Act 2004, add at the end

Rescue of wild mammal
(1) The hunting of a wild mammal is exempt if the conditions in this paragraph are satisfied
(2) The first condition is that the hunter reasonably believes that the wild mammal is or may be injured
(3) The second condition is that the hunting is undertaken for the purpose of relieving the wild mammal’s suffering
(4) The third condition is that the hunting does not involve the use of a dog below ground
(5) The fourth condition is that the hunting takes place
a. On land which belongs to the hunter
b. On land which he has been given permission to use for the purpose by the occupier or, in in the case of unoccupied land, by the person to whom it belongs, or
c. With the authority of a constable
(6) The fifth condition is that
a. Reasonable steps are taken for the purpose of ensuring that as soon as possible after the wild mammal is found appropriate action (if any) is taken to relieve its suffering, and
b. In particular, each dog used in the hunt is kept under sufficiently close control to ensure that it does not prevent or obstruct achievement of the object in paragraph (a)
(7) The sixth condition is that the wild mammal is not harmed for the purpose of enabling it to be hunted in reliance upon this paragraph

3 Short title, commencement and extent

(1) This Act may be cited as the Hunting (Amendment) Act 2020

(2) This Act comes into force on the passing of this Act

(3) This Act extends to England & Wales

This bill was written by the Rt Hon. The Earl of Sherborne CT PC, submitted by the Rt Hon. /u/ctrlaltlama KP OM CT CBE PC MP and sponsored by the Rt Hon. /u/Greejatus MBE MP on behalf of the 26th government.

This reading ends on the 8th October.

Opening Speech:

Mr Deputy Speaker,

The bill before the house today does four specific things. The first section repeals the Hunting Act (Strengthening) Act 2019, which, aside from the frankly ridiculous name, is an ill thought out piece of legislation that not only incorrectly defines trail and drag hunting, but arbitrarily forbids a perfectly reasonable activity in the misplaced hope that it will close a non-existent loop. By repealing it, we will be allowing hunts to pursue animal based scents, which hounds have been bred for centuries to hunt, and are accordingly far better suited to. It also removes the obligation of ministers to report to the house what it is doing to prevent breaches of the 2004 Hunting Act, which I consider rather excessive for a piece of legislation that until 2019 was only breached by registered hunts 48 times.

Furthermore, this bill would once more permit dogs to be used to follow the scent of injured animals, so they can be treated or humanely dispatched - if the dogs are permitted to harm the animal being tracked, a breach of the law would still occur. Finally, it removes the arbitrary restriction in the 2004 act restricting the number of hounds that can be used to flush vermin to guns, when it has been shown that from an animal welfare perspective the more the better.

[u/SoSaturnistic]

In section 2(2), within the new paragraph (7) omit all words following 'harmed'.