Chamber and committees

We move to questions from Rachael Hamilton.

We will now consider the exceptions in sections 3, 5, 6 and 7.

We move on to section 1 and 2 offences.

On that topic, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation has raised concern that the inclusion of rabbits will affect how a significant number of people go about their work. Section 3 restricts people to killing the wild mammal by means of shooting or with a bird of prey. That will rule out, for example, people being employed to use, or voluntarily using, dogs to flush rabbits to nets and then dispatching them by hand. It will also rule out the use of more than two dogs in a spaniel field trial in which rabbits are part of the quarry for the day, even though the rabbits are shot. Will you consider further exemptions to ensure that those activities are not covered by the bill?

Okay. Thanks.

The bill will restrict people to using two dogs to flush rabbits into a net, and section 3 suggests that they will need to be shot or killed by a bird of prey. It will not allow someone to dispatch them by hand.

With due respect, I am trying to understand the question. Are you suggesting that there are different policies on whether the hunting is to control—

I call Edward Mountain.

We are about to move on to questions on licensing, so we have slightly jumped the gun.

We have a supplementary question from Mercedes Villalba.