Wildlife crime in Scotland: 2019 annual report

4. Wildlife crime priority areas

Wildlife crime priorities are set at UK level by the Wildlife Crime Tasking and Co-ordinating Group. The group's membership includes the Police, the Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW), National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU), and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

The priorities remained unchanged in 2017-18:

• Badger persecution;
• Bat persecution;
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES);
• Freshwater pearl mussels;
• Poaching (including deer poaching, hare coursing, fish poaching);
• Raptor persecution.

Priority groups on poaching and coursing, and freshwater pearl mussel crime, continue to operate in Scotland, as well as the PAW Scotland Raptor Group (formerly the Raptor Persecution Priority Delivery Group).

The following sections provide more detail on each of these priority areas, along with the relevant data. The additional sections from the 2014 report on the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and Trapping and Snaring continue to be included.

NatureScot have provided a 'Health of Species' appraisal in Appendix 4, for those priority species that fall within NatureScots remit: badger, bats, freshwater pearl mussels, deer, brown hare and key raptors. This appraisal is intended to give an overview of current population trends, factors affecting the health of the species and the relative impact of wildlife crime on the conservation status and is in response to an Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee request for this contextual information.

4.1 Police Scotland disaggregated data

The data shown in Figure 1, table 15 and table 16 has been presented by Police Scotland. Data in Table 1 is sourced from the Scottish Government Recorded Crime figures and care should be taken in comparing those figures with the disaggregated figures provided in this section.

Table 15: Police Scotland offence data from 2014-15 to 2018-19

Type of crime	Number of offences
	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19
Badger persecution	4	7*	6	15	16
Bat persecution	0	2	0	1	0
CITES	10	5	6	2	1
Freshwater pearl mussels	5	1	2	1	1
Poaching and coursing	159	140	115	127	69
Raptor persecution	31	25	11	24	17
Not related to Priority Area	69	78	91	63	59
No crime recorded	0	3	0	2	0
Total	278	261	231	235	163
Additional breakdowns
Trapping/snaring (all species)*	27	15	15	15	28
Fox hunting	2	4	2	6	2
Hunting with dogs (all Protection Wild Mammals Act offences)	-	44	22	41	22
Total	29	63	39	62	52

Source: Police Scotland

* All Offences involving badgers. These offences may be duplicated elsewhere, e.g. illegal killing of a badger by snaring would be recorded in 'Badger persecution' and 'Trapping/snaring'

Table 16: Quarterly Police Scotland data for 2018-2019

Type of crime	Number of offences
	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar
Badger persecution	10	0	4	2
Bat persecution	0	0	0	0
CITES	0	0	1	0
Freshwater pearl mussels	1	0	0	0
Poaching and coursing	16	26	14	13
Raptor persecution	7	3	3	4
Not related to Priority Area	25	16	10	8
Total	59	45	32	27
Additional breakdowns
Trapping/snaring (all species)*	10	6	6	6
Fox hunting	0	0	0	2
Hunting with dogs (all Protection Wild Mammals Act offences)	5	2	9	6
Total	15	8	15	14

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

4.2 Badger persecution

All badgers in Scotland are protected by law, but they are sometimes still illegally targeted by those who see them as a pest or for the purposes of illegal animal fights.

Reckless or intentional damage, destruction and interference to badger setts (including sett blocking) is an offence which may arise from unlicensed forestry,

agricultural or construction works.

Recorded crimes

Table 17 and figure 2 show that there were 16 offences relating to badger persecution recorded by Police Scotland in 2018-19, compared to 15 in 2017-18. Table 18 provides a quarterly breakdown of offences.

Table 17: Badger offences 2018-19 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Type of offence	Number of offences
Ayrshire	Disturbance	1
Dumfries and Galloway	Disturbance	1
Fife	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	1
Forth Valley	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	1
	Disturbance	1
Lothians and Scottish Borders	Killing	4
	Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	3
	Disturbance	1
North East	Killing	1
	Disturbance	1
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde	Disturbance	1
Total		16

Source: Police Scotland

Table 18: Badger offences 2018-19 by species and quarterly breakdown

Type of Crime	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Digging, damage and obstruction to sett	3	0	1	1	5
Killing	4	0	1	0	5
Disturbance	3	0	2	1	6
Total	10	0	4	2	16

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

4.3 Bat persecution

Bats and their roosts are protected by the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994), which gives strict legal protection to all species listed under Annex IV of the EU Habitats Directive – known as European Protected Species (EPS). Scotland's bat population is relatively small compared to other parts of the UK.

Bats, their breeding sites and resting places are at particular risk from development works and evidencing the presence of bats in these cases can be very challenging. Police Scotland work closely with SNH bat specialists in the investigation of any alleged offences.

Recorded crimes

There were no offences involving bat persecution recorded by Police Scotland in 2018-19.

Source: Police Scotland

4.4 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. It is an international agreement between governments, which aims to protect certain animal and plant species from over-exploitation by trade.

In Scotland and the rest of the UK, this agreement is given legal authority by the Control of Trade in Endangered Species (Enforcement) Regulations 1997, known as COTES.

Recorded crimes

Table 19 and figure 4 show that one CITES-related offence was recorded by Police Scotland in 2018-19

Table 19: Summary of 2018-19 CITES offences

Police Division	Type of Offence	Date
Glasgow	Offer for sale stuffed protected animals without relevant permit.	Dec-18

Source: Police Scotland

Figure 4: Police Scotland offence data for CITES 2014-15 to 2018-19

Source: Police Scotland

4.5 Freshwater Pearl Mussels

Scotland supports several of the largest remaining populations of freshwater pearl mussels (FWPM) in the world some of which continue to be damaged by criminal activity. Pearl fishing continues in Scotland, almost uniquely within Europe. FWPM are also threatened by unlawful river engineering and pollution.

Recorded crimes

Police Scotland recorded one offence in relation to FWPM during 2018-19.

Table 20: Summary of 2017-18 FWPM offences

Police Division	Type of Offence	Date
Highland and Islands	FWPM fishing	Jun-18

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

4.6 Poaching and coursing

Poaching involves the taking of deer, fish or other game without permission, or using unlawful methods. Coursing is the hunting of animals with dogs. This section sets out the new Police Scotland disaggregated data in addition to providing an overview on the work of the Poaching & Coursing Priority Delivery Group.

Recorded crimes

During 2018-19, 69 poaching and coursing offences were recorded by Police Scotland, compared to 127 offences in 2017-18. Table 21 shows the Highlands and Islands Division has the highest number of recorded hare coursing offences at 20.

Table 22 shows that fish poaching offences are the most commonly recorded at 23 offences, while hare coursing accounted for a further 20 offences.

Table 21: Poaching and coursing offences 2018-19 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Target Species	Number of offences
Argyll and West Dunbartonshire	Deer	2
	Fish	2
	Hare	2
Dumfries and Galloway	Deer	1
Edinburgh	Deer	1
Fife	Deer	3
	Fish	1
	Hare	3
Forth Valley	Goose	1
Glasgow	Deer	1
Highland and Islands	Deer	2
	Fish	13
	Rabbit	4
	Unknown	1
Lanarkshire	Deer	1
	Fish	3
North East	Deer	2
	Fish	2
	Hare	6
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde	Deer	3
	Fish	1
Tayside	Hare	9
The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Deer	3
	Fish	1
	Rabbit	1
Grand total		69

Source: Police Scotland

Table 22: Poaching offences 2018-19 by species and quarterly breakdown

Target Species	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Deer	5	8	3	3	19
Fish	6	0	16	1	23
Goose	0	0	1	0	1
Hare	5	3	3	9	20
Rabbit	0	2	3	0	5
unknown	0	0	0	1	1
Total	16	13	26	14	69

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

4.7 Raptor persecution

The persecution of raptors, or birds of prey, is the most high-profile type of wildlife crime in Scotland and it can have a serious impact on the populations of some raptor species at local, regional or (if carried out more widely) national level.

This section presents Police Scotland disaggregated data and SASA poisoning figures in relation to raptor offences.

Poisonings and other recorded crimes

Table 23 and figure 7 show the numbers of birds of prey confirmed by SASA as illegally poisoned between 2014-15 and 2018-19, alongside the number of incidents which resulted in these poisonings. The figures show that buzzards (15) remain the most commonly recorded victim of illegal poisoning over the five year period.

Table 23: Bird of prey poisonings, Scotland, 2014-15 to 2018-19

Year	Number of Birds of Prey Poisoned (By Species)				Number of Incidents
	Buzzard	Red kite	Peregrine falcon	All
2014-15	3	3	1	7	6*
2015-16	5	1	-	6	5
2016-17	3	1	-	4	3
2017-18	3	1	-	4	4
2018-19	1	3	1	5	5
Total	15	9	2	26	23

Source: Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA)

*One incident may involve more than one bird

Source: SASA

Recorded crimes

While recorded raptor persecution offences dropped from 24 in 2017-18 to 15 in 2018-19, they represent a similar percentage of recorded crime (10% and 9% respectively).

Figure 8, table 24 and table 25 show a summary of bird of prey incidents and offences recorded by Police Scotland between 2014-19. A direct comparison between the datasets is not possible as incidents may involve multiple offences. However the tables do demonstrate general trends. As with the SASA poisoning data, these figures show that the buzzard (involved in 32 of the 95 cases) was the species most commonly affected over the five year period.

Shooting remains the highest recorded crime type for the period (25), followed by poisoning (23). It should be noted that one incident in this period in The Lothians and Scottish Borders involved the persecution of 10 raptors.

Figures in tables 24 and 25 from 2014-2015 relates to incident data, which may include multiple offences and victims. Figures from 2015-16 onward relates to offence data, which relates to individual offences.

Source: Police Scotland

Table 24: Recorded bird of prey cases in Scotland, 2014-15 to 2018-19 by species involved

	Number of Cases (by species involved)
	Buzzard	Hen Harrier	Peregrine	Red Kite	Eagle	Sea Eagle	Golden Eagle	Goshawk	Merlin	Osprey	Red Kite & Buzzard	Barn Owl	Short Eared Owl	Tawny Owl	Unknown	Sparrowhawk	Total
2014-15	6	1	3	4	-	-	1	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	1	-	18
2015-16	12	2	1	4	-	-	1	1	-	2	1	-	-	-	1	-	25
2016-17	4	-	1	-	-	-	1	1	-	3	1	-	-	-	-	-	11
2017-18	1	2	1	1	1	1	1	-	1	1	-	1	1	-	12	-	24
2018-19	9	-	1	2	-	-	1	1	-	1	-	-	-	-	1	1	17
Total	32	5	7	11	1	1	5	4	1	7	2	1	1	1	15	1	95

Source: Police Scotland

Table 25: Recorded bird of prey cases in Scotland, 2014-15 to 2018-19 by type of crime

	Number of Cases (by type of crime)
	Disturbance	Egg Theft	Other	Poisoning	Shooting	Trapping	Total
2014-15	1	-	2	6	8	1	18
2015-16	3	-	3	6*	8	6*	25
2016-17	4	1		3	2	1	11
2017-18	3	1	11	2	5	2	24
2018-19	-	1	3	6	2	5	17
Total	11	3	19	23	25	15	95

Source: Police Scotland

* one incident involved both trapping and poisoning

Table 26: Summary of recorded bird of prey offences in Scotland 2018-19 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Target Species	Number of offences
Dumfries and Galloway	Buzzard	1
	Red Kite	2
Fife	Unknown	1
Forth Valley	Sparrowhawk	1
Highland and Islands	Buzzard	2
	Golden Eagle	1
Lanarkshire	Buzzard	3
	Osprey	1
North East	Goshawk	1
Tayside	Buzzard	1
The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Buzzard	2
	Peregrine Falcon	1
Total		17

Source: Police Scotland

Table 27 and Figure 9 shows a majority of recorded bird of prey offences occurring during April to June, with 7 of the 17 total offences.

Table 27: Bird of prey offences 2018-19 by species and quarterly breakdown

Target species	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Buzzard	5	1	1	2	9
Golden Eagle	1	-	-	-	1
Goshawk	-	-	-	1	1
Osprey	1	-	-	-	1
Peregrine Falcon	-	-	1	-	1
Red Kite	-	1	1	-	2
Sparrowhawk	-	1	-	-	1
Unknown	-	-	-	1	1
Total	7	3	3	4	17

Source: Police Scotland

Source: Police Scotland

Table 28 provides a detailed breakdown of bird of prey incidents for the financial year 2018-19. One incident may involve more than one bird.

Table 28: Details of recorded bird of prey incidents in Scotland 2018-19

Species targeted	Police Division	Type of offence	Month and year
Buzzard	Dumfries and Galloway	Poisoning	May 2018
	Highland and Islands	Trapping	Aug 2018
	Highland and Islands	Trapping	Feb 2019
	Lanarkshire	Shooting	Apr 2018
	Lanarkshire	Poisoning	Nov 2018
	Lanarkshire	Trapping	Mar 2019
	Tayside	Poisoning	Apr 2018
	The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Other	Jun 2018
	The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Shooting	Jun 2018
Golden Eagle	Highland and Islands	Egg theft	Jun 2018
Goshawk	North East	Trapping	Jan 2019
Osprey	Lanarkshire	Other	May 2018
Peregrine Falcon	The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Poisoning	Oct 2018
Red Kite	Dumfries and Galloway	Poisoning	Jul 2018
	Dumfries and Galloway	Poisoning	Nov 2018
Sparrowhawk	Forth Valley	Other	Sep 2018
Unknown	Fife	Trapping	Feb 2019

source: Police Scotland

4.8 Fox Hunting and the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002

This section highlights offences under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002. Section 1 of the 2002 Act prohibits the deliberate hunting of a wild mammal with a dog (subject to certain exceptions). The Act is most commonly used in connection with hare coursing, although it has also been used for incidents relating to foxes, deer and badgers. It does not prohibit the hunting of rabbits or rats by dogs.

Recorded crime

Table 29 and figure 10 shows from the disaggregated data from Police Scotland, two of the 22 hunting with dogs cases related to fox hunting offences, rather than activities such as hare coursing. The total number of "hunting with dogs offences" recorded in 2018-19 (22) fell from 2017-18 (41). Hare coursing makes up the majority of these offences (19).

Source: Police Scotland

Table 29*: Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 'hunting with dogs' offences 2018-19 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Target species	Number of offences
Argyll and West Dunbartonshire	Hare	2
Edinburgh	Deer	1
Fife	Hare	3
North East	Hare	5
Tayside	Hare	9
The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Fox	2
Total		22

Source: Police Scotland

*The table does not show offences under Section 18(1) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act for attempts to commit an offence in relation to killing or taking a wild mammal.

Table 30: Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 'hunting with dogs' offences 2018-19 by species and quarterly breakdown

Target species	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Deer	-	-	-	1	1
Fox	-	-	-	2	2
Hare	5	2	9	3	19
Total	5	2	9	6	22

Source: Police Scotland

Prosecutions

For the period 2018-2019, fewer than 5 cases were reported to COPFS containing a charge under Section 1 of the 2002 Act specifically in connection with allegations of hunting foxes with dogs.

4.9 Trapping and Snaring

Trapping and snaring are methods which can be legitimately used for the control of some types of wildlife such as corvids, rodents or foxes. This may be for conservation purposes, to protect agricultural or sporting interests or for human health and safety reasons. However, the use of traps and snares is subject to legal restrictions designed to prevent harm to non-target species or unnecessary cruelty.

Recorded crimes

Trapping and snaring figures are not shown as part of the recorded crime statistics in Table 1 as the offence data cannot be broken down to that level. The Police Scotland disaggregated offence data in Table 15 shows that 28 offences were recorded for 2018-19, nearly double that of the previous year with 15 offences recorded in 2017-18.

Table 31 shows that over half (15) of the recorded trapping and snaring offences in 2018-19 occurred between Forth Valley and the Lothians and Scottish Borders divisions.

Table 31: Trapping and snaring offences 2018-19 by Police Scotland Division

Police Division	Type of offence	Target Species	Number of offences
Dumfries and Galloway	Larsen trap	Crow	1
Fife	Snare	Unknown	1
Forth Valley	Fenn trap	Red squirrel	1
	Live trap	Rabbit	2
	Snare	cat	2
		Unknown	3
Highland and Islands	Clam trap	Buzzard	1
	Fenn trap	Buzzard	1
	Gin trap	Unknown	1
	Snare	Fox	1
		Rabbit	1
Lanarkshire	Crow cage trap	Buzzard	1
	Larsen trap	Unknown	1
	Snare	Fox	1
North East	Snare	cat	1
Tayside	Fenn trap	Unknown	1
	Larsen trap	Crow	1
The Lothians and Scottish Borders	Snare	Badger	2
		Deer	1
		Unknown	4
Total			28

Source: Police Scotland

Table 32 shows a slight bias towards offences occurring from April to September. This may be associated with an increase in trapping and snaring activity during these months and/or an increase in detection due to increased recreational use of the countryside during this time.

Table 32: Trapping and snaring offences 2018-19 by quarterly breakdown

Type of crime	Apr-Jun	Jul-Sep	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Total
Bycatch	-	-	1	-	1
Clam trap	-	1	-	-	1
Crow cage trap	-	-	-	1	1
Fenn trap	-	-	-	2	2
Gin trap	-	-	1	-	1
Larsen trap	1	-	1	1	3
Live trap	-	-	2	-	2
Snare	9	5	1	2	17
Total	10	6	6	6	28

Source: Police Scotland

Prosecutions

In 2018-19, 5 cases related to trapping and snaring were reported to COPFS.