Yesterday’s news that a ban (almost total) on lead ammunition use is coming is welcome. Assuming that it all goes smoothly (I believe it will) then it will bring to a happy conclusion decades of campaigning.
But why has it taken so long? So very long?
Lead is a poison and it has gradually been removed from our lives because of its impacts on us – especially neurological development in children but other impacts too.
- lead for water pipes was banned in the 1970s and so houses built after then, or whose pipework had been replaced since then, should be lead free.
- most lead fishing weights were made illegal in 1986 partly because of their impact on wildlife such as swans who swallowed the weights by accident and were poisoned by the lead.
- lead-based paints were withdrawn from sale to the general public in the UK in 1992 though such paint was still available for some specialised uses.
- lead, as an anti-knocking additive to motor fuel was in widespread use from the 1920s until it was banned in 1999.
- lead ammunition was banned for wildfowling and over wetlands generally in 1999 in England and with various national differences of detail in the rest of the UK soon after but this left other gamebirds (Pheasant, both partridges, Red Grouse and a few waders) as well as species that can be shot for other reasons (Woodpigeons and some corvids etc) still vulnerable to lead
- various foods have higher lead levels and maximum levels were set, EU-wide, for lead in 2006 (as best as I can tell) but no limits are in place for game meat which has lead shot into it!
I remember that in the forging of The Environmental Protection (Restriction on Use of Lead Shot) (England) Regulations 1999 – click here – the original intention was a complete ban but the admirable minister concerned, Michael Meacher, phoned me as RSPB Director of Conservation and said that he didn’t think he could get a full ban through parliament because of opposition (particularly from grouse shooters) in the House of Lords. Michael, who was a joy to work with said that if the RSPB, I, asked him to persevere then he would but it would probably lead (pronounced ‘leed’) to lead (pronounced ‘ledd’) not being restricted anywhere. So, on the advice of my staff and fitting with my own view, we settled for the partial ban as it was a significant step forward. I remember saying to the minister that we could sort the rest of lead use out over the next few years. Well, here we are 26 years later and with a few years of transition to go. I’m glad I have survived to see this and wish that Michael Meacher were here too but he died a decade ago.
Several studies have shown very poor compliance with the 1999 regulations – they aren’t enforced and many shooters ignore them. This increased pressure for a complete ban because that would hit the non-compliance problem too. Also, the scientific evidence for harm to humans increased with more studies and the environmental impacts were shown to be greater than previously thought with top predators being affected by eating contaminated shot corpses.
In the last year of the Labour government the RSPB and Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust wrote to Defra and asked them to set up a group to investigate the impact of lead ammunition on human health, the environment and wildlife – click here. That group was set up and in my last year at the RSPB I was a member of it. The group was chaired by John Swift the BASC Chief Executive at the time – click here. The group produced its report – click here – after five years (longer than envisaged due to shenanigans by the shooting industry representatives – wrecking tactics) and the worst environment Secretary ever (and also later to be worst Prime Minister) sat on the report for over a year before rejecting it on spurious grounds on her last day in the job while David Cameron was resigning after landing the country with Brexit – click here.
We’ve now had a Health and Safety Executive review and consultation (which simply confirmed what Defra was told by the LAG in 2015 and we are moving towards an almost complete ban.
So, why has it taken so long? I’m really not sure, but here are some ideas:
- although the science has been clear the vested interest of shooting has simply ignored the science, denied the science and denigrated the scientists involved throughout – this makes it easier for politicians to delay and to re-review
- we have had a high turnover of Defra ministers, including at Secretary of State level – politicians are always keener on doing something new than finishing off something that has been around for ages
- we have had Conservative politicians, some of whom are clearly wedded to fieldsports and some of whom were just poor ministers. It is notable that LAG was set up at the end of the last Labour government and we have seen the decision to implement a ban in the early years of this Labour government. We have been treading water for 14 years of Conservative willful blindness
- the balance of campaigning and science have been tilted too much towards further studies than further pressure
- the two organisations, RSPB and WWT, for which this is a big issue have been feeble in pressing for change – they have not made resolving this issue a high enough priority and therefore have probably spent more resources on it over a prolonged period than if they have pushed harder from the start
- the shooting industry has considerable influence, particularly with the Conservatives (and Reform) – an influence out of all proportion to the economic value of shooting and the small number of people for whom shooting living creatures for fun is their hobby
It may be that our side has been too nice, too keen to do some more science and too feeble in mobilising opinion in favour of a ban. Maybe some of the blame for that sits with me. It is a feature of vested interests that they are rarely too nice, encourage more studies and more reviews as a matter of course, and fear the mobilisation of ordinary people.
I have a teeth-gritted admiration for the shooters for stringing this out for as long as they have. It has been very annoying and distracted some of us, now and again, from other issues.
Of course, the same people are playing the same games over the demise of driven grouse shooting.
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