An improved outlook for shooting in Wales and Scotland

The biggest winners in the Wales and Scotland elections were political parties with supportive manifestos for shooting and conservation explains Conor O’Gorman.

In the lead up to the Senedd and Scottish Parliament elections BASC encouraged members to contact candidates via its elections platform and thank you to all that did that.

If you have not already done so, please forward any emails you received back from them to welshelection2026@basc.org.uk or politicsscotland@basc.org.uk

Your feedback now, and over the next four years, is vital to keep our country teams informed as they renew engagement with the elected members of the Welsh and Scottish governments to showcase the benefits of shooting and conservation.

The various parties seeking to secure seats in the elections published manifestos and BASC published analysis on these from a shooting perspective for Wales and Scotland.

Wales

In Wales, gamebird releasing recently faced the renewed threat of a potential ban under the Welsh Labour government. In the lead up to the elections, it announced the potential introduction of gamebird release licensing – a ban by the backdoor.

That threat has been averted for now with a complete shake-up of the Welsh political landscape.

Post-election Plaid Cymru is now in charge having won 43 seats, with Reform a close second on 34 seats. Welsh Labour, with nine seats might rue its many ill-advised proposals impacting rural communities.

In its pre-election manifesto, Plaid Cymru committed to halting biodiversity loss and achieving substantive recovery by 2050 and that is exactly what the shooting community in Wales is doing. There are specific promises for the creation and maintenance of woodlands and hedgerows and again that is we are already delivering.

As the second biggest party in Wales, Reform UK will be the official opposition. The party’s pre-election promise was not to ban the release of game birds or create a licensing regime; and to review the ‘excessively restrictive’ general licences for the control of pest birds.

With that in mind, should the Welsh government unexpectedly create hostile policies to restrict shooting-related activities, we have a backstop.

Going on the front foot, BASC’s engagement with the new Welsh government will be seeking public recognition of the social, environmental and economic benefits of shooting; and a commitment to create and deliver action plans protecting species, agricultural crops, forestry and native flora and fauna.

Scotland

In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) secured 58 seats and will stay in power. The next biggest parties are Reform UK and Scottish Labour party with 17 seats each. The Greens secured 15 seats and the Conservatives 12 seats.

SNP has promised to support firm deer control incentives, implement a national deer management and venison plan. Reform UK’s manifesto for Scotland commits to “support rural communities by maintaining traditional country sports”. Scottish Labour commits to “work in partnership to deliver sustainable deer management, continuing incentive pilots and supporting community initiatives to supply venison to local markets”.

The last Scottish Government was SNP propped up by the Greens until 2024 during which there were a series of attacks on shooting interests. However, things have improved in the last two years since John Swinney took charge, and the First Minister has met with BASC several times, understands our concerns, and we can be cautiously optimistic for the future.

In addition to seeking public recognition of the social, environment and economic benefits of shooting BASC wants a commitment from the Scottish Government to work with practitioners using scientific evidence and fact-based approaches. We are also lobbying for the Scottish government to review current/outdated legislation and licensing to ensure it supports self-regulation and is workable for the sector.

Challenges ahead

Whilst immediate threats to shooting have receded in Wales and Scotland, they could return.

A key issue will be what the Welsh and Scottish governments decide on the outcome of the recently concluded bird quarry species review. Wildlife legislation is devolved so we could see differing approaches, and this will be a key test – will they support self-regulation and endorse BASC’s sustainable shooting code of practice or will these new governments wield the ill-fated legislative whip?

Whomever remains in power, and whatever they do, we will continue to engage with elected members from every party at all levels – county councils, metro mayors, the governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the UK government. You never know what the future holds and the people we engage with today could be the ministers of tomorrow.

Conor OGorman

Conor O’Gorman has worked in a variety of conservation, policy and campaigning roles at BASC over the last 20 years. A zoology graduate with a PhD awarded for grey partridge research, he has over 25 years’ experience in conservation and land management.