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United Kingdom

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Seasons

Close seasons written into the act itself

Snipe to 11 August, wild duck and geese below high water to 31 August — and no shooting on Sundays in Scotland.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 protects wild birds, then carves out exceptions. A person is not guilty of the section 1 offence by reason of killing or taking a bird included in Part I of Schedule 2 outside the close season for that bird, or injuring such a bird outside that season in the course of an attempt to kill it. The act defines those close seasons itself. For capercaillie and, except in Scotland, woodcock, the period runs from 1 February to 30 September. For snipe, from 1 February to 11 August. For wild duck and wild geese in or over any area below the high-water mark of ordinary spring tides, from 21 February to 31 August. In any other case, from 1 February to 31 August. The Secretary of State may by order vary the close season for a specified wild bird, for the whole or any part of Great Britain. Two calendar restrictions follow: in Scotland these exceptions apply on neither Sundays nor Christmas Day; in England and Wales the Secretary of State may prescribe by order areas where the exception does not apply on Sundays. For deer, the Deer Act 1991 makes it an offence to take or intentionally kill deer of the species and descriptions listed in its Schedule 1 during the prescribed close season. One exception concerns farming: a person who, by way of business, keeps deer on land enclosed by a deer-proof barrier for the production of meat, skins or other by-products, or as breeding stock, and marks them conspicuously as such, does not commit that offence by killing them.

Regulations

United Kingdom: no general licence, but the landholder’s consent

Entering land without the owner’s or occupier’s consent to hunt deer there is an offence.

British law does not organise hunting around a national licence the way continental systems do. What governs access is the consent of whoever holds the land. The Deer Act 1991 says so in its first section: a person is guilty of an offence if they enter land without the consent of the owner or occupier, or other lawful authority, in search or pursuit of any deer with the intention of taking, killing or injuring it. It is also an offence, while on any land, to take, kill or injure a deer intentionally — or attempt to — to search for or pursue a deer with that intention, or to remove a deer's carcase, without that consent or other lawful authority. The act allows a good-faith exception: there is no offence where the person acted in the belief that they would have had the owner's or occupier's consent had they known of the act and its circumstances, or that they had other lawful authority. An authorised person who reasonably suspects such an offence may require the person to give their full name and address and to quit the land forthwith. Hunting law is devolved in the United Kingdom: these acts apply to England and Wales, and in part to Scotland; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own deer legislation.

See also