Nature Conservancy Council (Hansard, 22 February 1989)

§ 13. Mr. Rooker
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he next expects to discuss protection of wildlife and field sports with the Nature Conservancy Council.

§ Mr. Ridley
I recently agreed a concordat with the NCC which effectively protects both wildlife and field sports, as the hon. Member suggested.

§ Mr. Rooker
When the right hon. Gentleman met the Nature Conservancy Council, did he ask whether its recent grant of over £70,000 to the Kent Wildfowling Association was the first ever state handout for the purchase of land for blood sports? The next time that he meets his friends on the NCC, will he take up with them their policy of not giving grants to organisations that genuinely seek to protect and conserve nature by refusing to allow blood sports on those lands? Surely the gunmen of Kent can buy their own land.

§ Mr. Ridley
I understand that before offering grant the NCC satisfied itself that that grant would promote nature conservation and would give good value for money. I strongly support the general basis on which the NCC operates, which is that it is possible successfully to combine conservation and British field sports. Unlike the hon. Gentleman, I bear no grudge against field sports.

§ Mr. Bellingham
Will my right hon. Friend ignore the rubbish talked by the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker), who does not understand the countryside? Does he agree that the best way in which to protect wildlife is to encourage field sports?

§ Mr. Ridley
I have no doubt that my hon. Friend is right, and the NCC's concordat is testimony to the fact that it thinks so, too.

§ Mr. Tony Banks
Is it true that the hon. Member for Crawley (Mr. Soames) plays in his car on his way home the sound of hounds in full—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. This question is addressed to the Secretary of State, not to the hon. Member for Crawley (Mr. Soames).

§ Mr. Banks
But I want to know whether that is the general attitude. If the hon. Member for Crawley can go home playing the sound of—

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Gentleman cannot ask a question like that.

§ Mr. Ridley
If my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Mr. Soames) does as the hon. Genttleman claims, he is in very good company. The hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham) believes that foxhunting should be abolished everywhere, except in his own constituency.