Scotland rules out a ban on selling snares

The decision was published on 18 August in a written answer from Jim Fairlie, the minister for agriculture, marine and the islands, and it settles a question left open when Holyrood banned the use of snares two years ago. Ministers will not extend the offence to selling them, so a snare that cannot lawfully be set in Scotland can still lawfully be bought and sold there.

What the welfare commission asked for

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission, which advises ministers, published a position paper on snaring in December 2022. Its recommendation was a single sentence: the commission “recommends that the sale of snares and their use by both public and industry are banned in Scotland, on animal welfare grounds”. It concluded that snares “cause significant welfare harms to members of both target and non-target species”.

Half of that recommendation became law. The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024 banned the use of snares outright, and that provision came into force on 25 November 2024. The sale limb was left where it was.

Why will ministers not ban sales?

Heather Anderson, the SNP MSP for Dundee City West, lodged her question on 30 July, asking what the Government’s position was on a ban in light of the commission’s recommendation.

Mr Fairlie’s answer took the Government back to its own consultation of August 2023, on the use of snares and the powers of Scottish SPCA inspectors, in which it proposed not to extend the offence beyond the snares already prohibited under section 11 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The reasoning is practical rather than principled: many of the snares that were being set, the minister said, were made by practitioners from readily available materials, so a ban on sales would have limited effect.

Self-locking snares are a separate case

One category is already off the shelves. Section 11(3C) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 makes it an offence to possess or sell a self-locking snare, and that has been the position for years, across Great Britain rather than Scotland alone. Nothing in the answer changes it.

What the answer does confirm is that the remaining types stay in ordinary trade in Scotland, even though there is no longer a lawful way to set them there.

What does it mean for gamekeepers in Scotland?

Practically, it removes a risk that had been hanging over anyone who still has snares in the vermin shed. Had ministers taken the commission’s full recommendation, possession and sale could have followed use into the criminal law, and old kit would have become a liability rather than clutter.

It does not restore anything. Snaring remains an offence in Scotland whatever the equipment is, and keepers working there have spent two seasons rebuilding fox control around other lawful methods. The answer is a statement about shop shelves, not about the hill.

What happens next

No further consultation is proposed, and the answer commits the Government to nothing beyond the position it took in 2023. The Scottish Parliament returns from recess on 31 August, and members who want the sale limb revisited will need to lodge fresh questions or a member’s bill to do it. The commission’s position paper stands unamended, and remains the only substantive advice ministers have from it on snaring.