Geese (Hansard, 22 December 1988)

§ Mr. Morley
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether, and to what extent, he provides advice to landowners on methods that may justifiably be used to reduce or prevent the possibility of damage to grasslands or crops by Greenland white-fronted geese.

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth
Landowners and occupiers are advised to undertake non-lethal scaring of Greenland white-fronted geese as the primary means of grassland or crop protection. Specific advice on the use of scaring devices is available from the Nature Conservancy Council.

§ Mr. Morley
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he intends to issue licences under the provision of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 for the purpose of shooting Greenland white-fronted geese during the winter in order to reduce or prevent serious damage to improved grassland and crops; and if he will state the number of applications and the number of guns in respect of each such application he has received to date.

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth
Licences will be issued to reduce or prevent serious damage to improved grassland and crops only in cases where non-lethal scaring has proved ineffective in preventing such damage caused by this species.
Twenty applications have been received. Sixteen applicants have requested the use of two guns and the remainder one gun. No licence has yet been issued.

§ Mr. Morley
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will state(a) the criteria which his professional staff will apply in determining the extent of damage that has been, or would have been, caused by Greenland white-fronted geese in considering individual applications to shoot such geese this winter and (b) the number of professional staff employed for this purpose.

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth
The criteria applied are the methods of non-lethal scaring used and their effectiveness, the number of geese involved and frequency of grazing, physical evidence of damage, loss of grazing to livestock due to geese grazing competition and expected loss of future grassland productivity which would result from uncontrolled grazing by geese. Two members of professional staff are employed in the assessments.