Lobbying to exempt grouse shooting from COVID-19 restrictions: FOI release

Information requested

1. Details of all lobbying of the Scottish Government and its Ministers from organisations, entities and persons concerned in grouse shooting, in relation to the restrictions placed on the congregation of persons for the management of the spread of COVID19;
2. Details of lobbying and representations made to the Scottish Government and its Ministers in support of an exemption or exemptions to COVID19 restrictions on the congregation and socialising of persons concerned with estate management with the use of firearms;
3. Details of lobbying or representations made to the Scottish Government and Ministers in relation to the impact of COVID19 restrictions on the free movement and assembly of persons insofar as they relate to managed estates and the shooting and hunting of animals.

Response

Some of the information you have requested is available from the Lobbying Register at:
https://www.lobbying.scot/SPS/ . Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Some of the information that we believe is in scope of your request is not available from the Lobbying Register and has been provided below:

Type of representation	Date	Minister	Organisation	Topic of discussion
Ministerial meeting	20/05/2020	Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Tourism	British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC)	Proposed frameworks for returning to country sports & for appropriate Covid-19 precautions for stakeholders and practitioners.
Official Correspondence	03/06/20	Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform	Scotland’s Regional Moorland Groups	Role of country sports in reviving remote communities post-lockdown
Ministerial Correspondence	24/09/20	Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Tourism	British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC)	Implications of 'one household rule' for self-catering businesses on country sports

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