Home Office actively considering age limits on catapult sales

The Home Office is “actively considering” new restrictions on catapults, including age limits on their sale, a minister has told Parliament, in the strongest signal yet that the campaign over catapult attacks on wildlife may produce new law. The same answer confirms that the maximum fixed penalty for breaching a community protection notice or public spaces protection order rises from £100 to £500 on Monday, 26 October.

What did the minister say?

Answering Sir John Hayes, the Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings, on Friday, 23 October, Home Office minister Sarah Jones wrote: “The Government shares the concern about the use of catapults against wildlife, people or property.” She said a roundtable with MPs and stakeholders was held in June and that the Government is “now working with the police to ensure that existing legislation is used consistently and effectively”.

Then came the new ground: “We have noted the proposals for new restrictions, including age restrictions on the sale of catapults, and we are actively considering what more might be done around enforcement.”

How does this move the debate on?

Until now ministers have answered catapult questions by listing existing powers: the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996 against attacks on wildlife, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 on unnecessary suffering, and the Prevention of Crime Act 1953, under which a catapult carried as an offensive weapon can bring up to four years in prison. Those laws are all restated in the answer, but the Government has not previously said it was actively considering sale restrictions.

The pressure has been sustained. The desk reported last week that the Home Office admitted it cannot count catapult offences, because they are not separately recorded, and keepers and wildfowlers have reported swans, deer and gamebirds killed and maimed in catapult attacks for years.

What changes on Monday?

Through the Crime and Policing Act 2026, the upper limit for a fixed penalty notice for breaching a public spaces protection order or community protection notice rises from £100 to £500 from 26 October. Both powers are already used against anti-social catapult misuse, so the fivefold rise gives police and councils a sharper immediate sanction while any new restrictions are weighed.

What happens next

No timetable was given for a decision on sale restrictions, and a parallel question asking what data the Government holds on catapult attacks remains unanswered after more than a week. The written answer can be read in full on the UK Parliament website.