HC Deb 27 July 1989 vol 157 c938W
Mr. Tony Banks

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment why he has forbidden the Nature Conservancy Council from(a) acquiring shooting rights in the process of setting up nature reserves, and (b) giving grants to other bodies for purchasing lands which carry the shooting rights; and if he will make a statement.

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley

In considering land purchase proposals whether from themselves or by grant aid to NGOs, the NCC and the Government are agreed that traditional rights over uses of the land should be interfered with only when that use is incompatible with the interests of conservation.