The RSPB’s report ‘Patterns of Persecution; a species-based study of the illegal killing of birds of prey in the UK (2015 – 2024)’ was published today. As was the case with its annual Birdcrime reports, it contains figures and accusations that are unverified and uses evidence drawn from ‘intelligence reports’ and ‘eye-witness accounts’. The report also states that as incidents usually take place in remote and inaccessible parts of the countryside, a significant number are likely to go undiscovered and unrecorded and therefore the figures in the report allegedly only represent just ‘the tip of the iceberg’. No evidence is offered to substantiate this claim.

This latest report is yet another means by which the RSPB is pursuing its anti-shooting agenda. Rather than seeking to ban game shooting unless licensed and relentlessly attacking it, the RSPB should be welcoming the £500 million worth of conservation work, equivalent to 26,000 full-time jobs and 14 million workdays, that is carried out by shooting providers each year. The contribution of shooting to the management of over 7.6 million hectares benefits wildlife enormously, including many of our most endangered bird species, and at no public cost. It is thanks in no small part to this work that the majority of our birds of prey are at their highest levels since records began, and of the 70 species of wild bird on the red list as being of the highest conservation concern, only three are birds of prey.

The Alliance is particularly concerned by the RSPB’s partial and unbalanced presentation of the data. In the past it has been possible to compare bird crime figures with those from previous years, which showed a downward trend, but this is no longer possible. The figures have not been verified by the National Wildlife Crime Unit and there are anomalies that make their accuracy suspect at best. For example, in this latest report covering the period 2015 – 2024, the RSPB states there have been 49 confirmed incidents of hen harrier persecution. However, only last year the RSPB’s report ‘Hen Harriers in the firing line’ claimed there had been 102 recorded incidents of illegal persecution against the species between 2020 and 2024, with 34 hen harriers killed or disappearing in 2024 alone. That figure of 34 was also exactly the same as that used by the RSPB’s in its 2023 Birdcrime report which quoted 34 incidents of hen harrier persecution during the 15-year period 2009 – 2023. These figures just don’t add up and yet they are being used by the RSPB to call for urgent legislative change.

The Countryside Alliance has zero tolerance towards and condemns all wildlife crime, including the illegal persecution of birds of prey, but the use of unconfirmed figures and unsubstantiated accusations by the RSPB cannot be used to justify the introduction of licensing for all gamebird shooting across the UK, which would be both disproportionate and unwarranted.