Review of snaring for Scottish Government, prepared by Scottish Natural Heritage

1. Introduction

The Wildlife & Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 ('the WANE Act') made a number of amendments to the Wildlife & Countryside Act 1981 ("the WCA").

The provisions within Section 13 of the WANE Act introduced new requirements for the operation of snares by amending Section 11 of the WCA, particularly with regard to the introduction of training, record keeping and identification tags.

The provisions also introduced the need for establishment of approved training bodies to deliver snare training, and created an administrative role within Police Scotland to maintain records of trained operators.

The changes were implemented in stages between 1st January 2012 and 1st April 2013 ^[1] , and therefore any person who sets a snare in place after the relevant date and fails to comply with the requirements then in force will be guilty of an offence and may be liable to criminal prosecution.

Section 11F of the WCA (as amended) requires a review of snaring legislation by 31st December 2016.

Scottish Natural Heritage ( SNH) has been tasked to undertake the Review of Snaring on behalf of Scottish Government.