Radical nature bill needs ‘urgent rethink’ 

Experts say the Scottish government’s controversial new nature bill “must not” include forcing landowners to meet quotas for culling deer or face a £40,000 fine or three months in prison. 

As the Natural Environment Bill progresses to the pre-legislative scrutiny phase — a period of detailed examination of the Bill in draft form — industry insiders say that in its current state it could “disrupt” the deer management already taking place in Scotland. One of the most contested proposals in the Bill is the suggested introduction of deer management nature restoration orders (DMNROs). The purpose of a DMNRO is allegedly to enable all necessary deer management actions needed to secure nature restoration, as prescribed by NatureScot, “under a single legally enforceable direction”. 

Failure to comply with an order could result in landowners and deer managers being handed a hefty fine or even a custodial sentence. The government has yet to publish detailed guidance on how these powers would function, leaving questions from the deer management sector on where and when they would be used, what the evidential threshold for their invocation would be and how the appeals process would work. 

Ross Ewing, director of moorland at Scottish Land & Estates, told ST: “Disproportionate regulatory powers expected to feature in the Natural Environment Bill may disrupt deer management already taking place, as well as putting at risk other land management practices and employment in the rural economy. Fixating on reducing a contested national population figure of one million deer is, to quote NatureScot, ‘misleading and unhelpful’. The focus should be on local and regional impacts instead. 

“Proposals to compel deer culls on the basis of nature recovery alone are likely to be legally and practically flawed. We would appeal to the Scottish government to work with those who understand the realities of deer management rather than impose ill-conceived top-down policies.” 

James Scott, British Deer Society (BDS) policy and external affairs officer for Scotland, said: “As the Bill is yet to be introduced to Parliament, it is possibly unhelpful to speculate too much as to what it may contain. We will continue to monitor the Bill as it progresses and work to ensure deer welfare is not compromised.”