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Bills and Laws

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill

The Bill aims to change:

  • rules around how people can capture and kill certain wild birds and wild animals
  • rules around the making of muirburn (the controlled burning of heather and other plants for land management purposes)

The Bill is at Stage 1


Contents


Stage 1 - General principles

Committees examine the Bill and gather views. They produce reports before MSPs debate the Bill in the Chamber. MSPs then decide on the purpose (“general principles”) of the Bill.

The Bill is at Stage 1

Committee Examination

The lead committee for this Bill is the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

Find out more about this committee

Submit your views

As part of its scrutiny of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill, the Committee ran a call for views between 31 March and 5 May 2023.

The Committee received 5,696 submissions in total, 100 from organisations and 5,596 from individuals.

Due to the significant number of individual responses, the Committee has produced two documents—

Read all the responses submitted by organisations (4MB, pdf)

Timetable

The timetable that the committee followed while examining the Bill at Stage 1

On 19 April 2023, Parliament agreed motion S6M-08622that consideration of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill at stage 1 be completed by 6 October 2023.

Timetable for Rural Affairs and Islands Committee consideration of the Bill at Stage 1—
31 May 2023
  • Evidence from the Scottish Government Bill Team
14 June 2023
  • Evidence from members of the Grouse Moor Management Review (Werritty) Group
  • Evidence on sections 1-3 (glue traps); sections 4-5 (wildlife traps); and section 8 (SSPCA powers)
21 June 2023
  • Evidence on sections 6-7 (grouse moor licensing)
  • Evidence on sections 9-19 (muirburn licensing)
28 June 2023
  • Evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands
6 September 2023
  • Consideration of draft report (in private)
13 September 2023
  • Consideration and agreement of draft report (in private)

Who spoke to the lead committee in the Parliament

MSPs met with people in committee meetings to discuss what the Bill will do.

Minutes of 29 March 2023 (in private)

The official report and videos for public meetings will be published here when available. 

Correspondence

Committee correspondence sent and received while the Bill progressed through Parliament

Wildlife Management and Muirburn Scotland Bill response from the Scottish Government

Letter from the Scottish Government to the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, 12 May 2023

Wildlife Management and Muirburn Scotland Bill 12 May 2023

Letter from the Scottish Government to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, 12 May 2023

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill letter to the Scottish Government

Letter from the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee to the Scottish Government, 4 May 2023

Read all the correspondence received on this Bill

Work by other committees

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Meeting on 2 May 2023

Finance and Public Administration Committee

Scrutiny of Financial Memorandum

Committee report

The lead committee will publish its report before the Debate at Stage 1.