Wildlife crime in Scotland: 2019 annual report

5. PAW Scotland

The Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime (PAW) Scotland consists of law enforcement bodies, wildlife and animal welfare charities, land management organisations and government agencies, working together to fight wildlife crime.

The partnership is supported by the Scottish Government. Its work is overseen by an Executive Group, comprising representatives of selected stakeholders and the chairs of PAW Scotland sub-groups and wildlife crime priority groups based in Scotland. A wider Plenary Group, made up of representatives of all PAW Scotland member organisations, meets to give an opportunity to all members to comment on PAW projects and raise any wildlife crime issues. Both these groups are chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform.

The Executive group met in February 2019, the Plenary group met in June 2019.

PAW Scotland operates a number of sub-groups focusing on a particular aspect of wildlife crime work. A summary of the 2019 work of these groups is provided below.

Legislation, Regulation and Guidance Sub-group

The Group met in May and November 2019. In May we welcomed a representative from Marine Scotland as a new member and our discussions identified the wide scope of Marine Scotland's power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices, covering many wildlife offences. There is thus a considerable mismatch between the enforcement options made available to Marine Scotland and those available to SNH and the police, all the more so since Marine Scotland's powers extend to many offences which are purely terrestrial. This is yet another example of where our wildlife law is currently fragmented and inconsistent.

Further items discussed at the meetings included:

• the fact that hardly any reports of incidents affecting bats lead to crime reports - the strictness of the legal provisions contrasts with the shared view that most incidents do not justify intervention through the criminal law;
• the phrasing of police reporting of incidents where "no crime recorded" can be taken as suggesting a clear decision that no offence has taken place whereas the position may be that there is insufficient evidence to determine whether or not an offence has been committed;
• the implementation of new laws affecting the sort of traps that can be used to catch stoats and certain other animals;
• concern at the scale of the by-catch of birds from traps set on planks/logs across ditches in order to catch mustelids – although the trap itself and its setting may meet the core legal requirements, once there have been incidents of by-catch that demonstrate the risk to birds, use in this way arguably does not meet the statutory requirement that traps should not be "placed as to be likely to cause bodily injury to any wild bird";
• DEFRA's consultation on the import and expert of hunting trophies, noting the adverse impact if overseas visitors visiting Scotland for deer stalking were not allowed to take home the heads of the deer they had lawfully killed;
• the measures contained in the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Bill, and the possibility of adding powers to impose fixed penalty notices for some technical offences;
• potential legislative changes, including changing the status of wood pigeons to become a "quarry" species and the extension of the licensable purposes for action affecting badgers to include the protection of biodiversity.

We also noted developments and continuing discussions elsewhere on:

• access to data from satellite tags attached to birds and reporting on the number of birds tagged;
• venison licensing;
• the use of thermal imaging and other devices to locate animals at night;
• progress with reports on deer and grouse moor management.

Training and Awareness Sub-group

In January 2020, the inaugural Wildlife Crime Investigators Course took place within Detective Training at the Scottish Police Campus (SPC) Tulliallan.

Roseanna Cunningham MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform attended and officially opened the course in conjunction with DCS Cunningham. 18 police officers attended the 5 day course where they learned investigative techniques in relation to wildlife crime. Several partner agencies including Scottish Government, RSPB, SNH, SASA and COPFS attended and delivered presentations. The course was well received and attracted significant media attention. The course will now form part on the annual college curriculum and another course is scheduled in July 2020.

A Wildlife Crime E-learning package for Police Offices is currently being designed and work is on-going to have this launched by Spring 2020. Wildlife crime has not been taught to police officers at SPC for around 15 years and this is seen as a welcome addition in increasing the skill and knowledge base for all police officers in relation to wildlife crime.

Wildlife Crime Officers have held the numerous partnership training days:

Badger Crime Scottish Badgers and Police Scotland have jointly held several events throughout Scotland where training consisted of classroom based lectures in relation to legislation, case studies and a visit to a local active sett. These events have taken place in Ayrshire, Borders, Central Scotland, Fife and have been attended by officers from throughout Scotland. These will continue across Scotland throughout 2020.

Deer Poaching awareness / training was provided to approximately 40 Police officers during November. ‎SNH gave a presentation regarding licensing, legislation and firearms while Police Scotland provided a presentation on venison dealer licences and the responsibilities of licensed venison dealers. The training supported subsequent enforcement and preventative action under the banner 'Operation Moon' whereby a number of licensed venison dealers around Scotland were visited and their records inspected.

Fisheries Management Scotland have jointly held training days with Police Scotland in relation to Salmon poaching awareness. Those events have been well attended by Police Officers and also COPFS have attended. Police Scotland officers gave an input at the Annual water Bailiffs conference in December 2019. An arrangement has also been made for Police Scotland to deliver training to Fisheries Management staff in relation to confrontation management.

Fresh Water and Pearl Mussel training and awareness days have taken place by Officers in Northern Scotland in 2019.

Satellite Tag training was provided to Police officers, COPFS and SNH staff BY RSPB in February 2019 whereby every issue around satellite tags and their operation was discussed.

Fisheries Marine Scotland have engaged in management confrontation training led by Police Scotland operational support unit. Police Scotland officers have attended events in relation to South of Scotland Golden Eagle Project and Hen Harriers Life project hosted by RSPB.

Police Scotland officers and members of SGA, Scottish Land and Estates attended a meeting held at Darwyck house near Peebles in August 2019 with the focus on joint partnership working. This event was seen as a success and it is anticipated that similar events will take place in 2020 throughout the country.

Police Scotland officers attended and provided inputs to colleagues at the National Wildlife Crime enforcers conference held in November 2020 at Milton Keynes.

Police Scotland and SNH have jointly prepared a guidance document aimed at the general public providing information on fossil collecting on Skye. An awareness day for officers based in Skye regarding illegal fossil collection was held in August.

Funding

The PAW Funding group met in February 2018 with another meeting scheduled for May 2019. The group made some changes to the PAW funding priorities and selection criteria including; the promotion of inclusivity; allow funding to be available to projects from public, private and voluntary sectors both within and outwith PAW Scotland and the requirement for completed projects to report the outcomes back to the relevant PAW sub-group.

The group funded the following projects in 2018/19;

• PhD research with the University of Edinburgh to establish a hen harrier DNA database to help prove criminal 'possession' in wildlife crime investigations.
• RSPB investigations team, a specialist team delivering awareness raising, crime prevention and detection functions. Assisting Police Scotland in criminal investigations.
• A project to develop satellite tags with the ability to provide an emergency signal upon the death of the tagged bird and/or destruction of the tag.
• A project to install cameras on high persecution risk freshwater pearl mussel in partnership with the West Sutherland Fisheries Trust
• A project by SUERC to develop forensic techniques to analyse ivory samples in CITES cases
• Delivery of courtroom training covering expert witnesses and production of impact statements delivered to selected SNH staff by Police Scotland, COPFS and NWCU.

Media

The Media Sub-group met in August 2019 and continued work to tighten and strengthen the protocol governing the ways in which partner organisations share news releases and respond to media enquiries. The group also focused on increasing the PAW Scotland presence on social media with reminders to partners to share stories and events for wider distribution.

The group contributed to a number of stakeholder-led social media campaigns e.g. on the NWCU #undisturbed campaign, drawing focus to the different kinds of disturbance issues faced by Scottish species; and the WDC #RudeToIntrude campaign on whale and dolphin disturbance.

Scientific

The Science Group met in February and in September at SASA. Topics discussed included the value of monitoring background levels of toxicity in raptors and ongoing discussions relating to requiring those fitting satellite tags (under licence) to make an annual return and a requirement to share data with Police Scotland, if required. Earlier discussion had led to a clearer understanding of the numbers of raptors that had been satellite tagged in Scotland in previous years. The role of artificial DNA as a possible deterrent to wildlife crime was assessed. The Group also considered the possibility of crimes being committed involving beavers following their European Protected Species status in 2019. The Group will be updated on current population status and geographical range.

Finally, the Group is also considering the commissioning of an attitudinal survey to capture the current public awareness of raptor and other wildlife crime. New research techniques have indicated that such work can act as a deterrent to wildlife crime. One of the researchers will be invited to a future meeting.

FWPM priority delivery group

The overall objective of the FWPM priority delivery group remains to raise awareness of the threat posed by criminality and help communities in hotspots to prevent criminality and identify offenders.

The FWPM delivery group continued to be active in 2019 with several projects ongoing. CCTV and signage was installed at a number of high risk locations to deter illegal pearl fishing. Following evidence of illegal persecution during 2019 at another site, agreement has also been reached with the local landowner for further CCTV to be installed to detect and deter any future wildlife crime. In addition, during 2019 Police Scotland continued proactive, intelligence-led patrols with partner organisations to help detect and deter suspicious activity in other priority local rivers in the Highlands.

The finding of a previously unknown, breeding pearl mussel population in the Cairngorms, by a NatureScot graduate placement, received considerable media attraction including BBC TV as well as radio, online and press, and the opportunity was used to promote the work of the priority delivery group.

Priority deliver group members also led further awareness raising activity which included providing a course for Scottish fishery trust members, planning a course for environmental consultants and presenting our work at the UK Wildlife Crime enforcers conference.

Poaching and coursing priority group

SNH officers assisted Police Scotland with intelligence-led visits to several venison dealers during the summer and early autumn. Some potential offences were detected, and Enquiries are ongoing.

SNH are currently developing a new on-line licensing system that is hoped will allow local authorities to perform live updates of venison dealer records. Police Scotland will be granted access to this system when it is operational, which is expected towards the end of 2020.

Deer Training was provided to approximately 40 Police officers during November 2019. ‎SNH gave a presentation regarding licensing, legislation and firearms while Police Scotland provided a presentation on venison dealer licences and the responsibilities of licensed venison dealers.

The training supported subsequent enforcement and preventative action under the banner 'Operation Moon' whereby several licensed venison dealers around Scotland were visited and their records inspected. The operation concluded on 15th December 2019, but the results are still being collated.

SNH have granted Police Scotland direct access to DeerLine, the online repository for Fit and Competent status and authorisations. This will allow officers to access the system to perform any necessary checks, particularly for enquiries involving shooting at night.

Enforcement action in the autumn 2019 focussed on hare coursers under the banner of 'Operation Lepus.' Investigations continue into ‎cases where coursers were traced.

Police Scotland are committed to investigating and preventing poaching and Wildlife Crime. In order to raise awareness of poaching to officers, operational guidance has recently been published and promoted via the force intranet. A Wildlife Crime E-Learning package is also currently being developed which includes a hare coursing module. This educational / guidance material is aimed at first responders to poaching to enable a prompt and effective response.

Over 30 new Wildlife Crime Officers are being recruited across the force area, and they will receive training on poaching and wildlife crime in general over the coming months.

PAW Scotland Raptor group

The raptor group met on 14th December 2019. DCS Gary Cunningham replaced DCS David McLaren as chair and proposed the circulation of a draft terms of reference for comment and discussion at the next meeting to allow the group to be task driven with focus on the "Prevention, Intelligence and Enforcement" approach.

Heads Up for Harriers continued through 2019 with the number of participating estates having risen from 5 to 28 since 2015. Out of 15 nests, 8 were successful with 26 chicks fledging. Natural failures recorded for others include predation, wild fires, and infertility. Issues identified include no involvement from some estates within the project when hen harriers are known to be on site, restriction of access to Project Officers, suspicious disappearances of satellite tagged birds including hen harriers and confirmed raptor crime.

Heads Up for Harriers plan for 2020 is to concentrate on estates where meaningful involvement is hoped, focussing on areas of concern and building on area where successes have been noted. Project Officers will focus on early intervention and increased communication with estate management. A multi-agency Prevention Intelligence Enforcement (PIE) approach will be adopted.

2019 saw increased positive engagement with land managers, Scottish Land and Estates and Scottish Gamekeepers Association, data tag holders and other key partners. It proved to be beneficial in terms of highlighting key issues for all parties, raising trust with all organisations and individuals and diminishing any perception of organisational bias.

The Raptor Group have been provided with updated guidance for the PAW Scotland satellite tag recovery protocol. A training event focussing on the understanding of satellite tagging and interpretation of its data was held early in 2019. NWCU and SNH provided training in relation to satellite tag technology and interpretation of the data to help assist Police officers in their understanding and confidence in dealing with such incidents. The day included key speakers from RSPB, Raptor Study Groups and NWCU

DCS Cunningham and CS Nick Lyall (UK lead for raptor persecution) met to discuss a coordinated UK wide approach for tackling raptor persecution.

Police Scotland continue to assist Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in consideration to imposing General Licence restrictions on estates causing concern.

PAW Scotland Badger group

The group met on two occasions, in May and December. The first meeting was mainly concerned with introductions and explanations of roles. The minutes of the second meeting have not yet been agreed by the Group members

The group observed that badger crime to be either increasing, or is being more reported. The normal annual total of 50-60 suspected crimes (mainly dug or damaged badger setts) appears to be staying at the same level. The SSPCA Special Investigation Unit, with whom Scottish Badgers work closely, reported a marked increase in dog fighting and subsequent badger harm. Badger baiting now occurs in every local authority area in Scotland, both urban and rural.

We have had a successful year in mounting training for Police Scotland Officers in badger awareness, consisting of a half day classroom presentation, and an afternoon visit to a badger sett. With funding from PAW, there were courses held in Inverness and Ayrshire early in 2019, and latterly in Haddington, Dalkeith, Galashiels, Dumfries, Livingston and Renfrew.

Scottish Badgers is currently examining the working of the Protection of Badgers Act (1992) (As amended in Scotland). This is being carried out by a Scottish-wide expert group of experienced badger consultants, aided by a QC working in environmental matters. Useful feedback was obtained by PAW Group members at the December meeting. The examination is concentrated upon the definition of a badger sett, and the treatment of this in court.