With the increase in sentencing for some wildlife crimes that has just come into effect in England & Wales the laws relating to penalties for wildlife crimes have been changed for all of the UK mainland (the increase in Scotland had already happened). It is now possible for a custodial sentence of up to 5 years to be given for some wildlife crime offences. As the number of prosecutions compared to complaints is already extremely low, as conviction rates are even lower and as custodial sentences are as rare as hens teeth, some may view this change as more pointless window dressing.

However, whilst we may never see anyone actually receiving a 5 year sentence the change does have one huge effect. The laws of evidence in the various jurisdictions of the UK mean that evidence obtained by covert filming is difficult or impossible to present in court. For covert filming to be used a ‘threshold’ for the ‘seriousness’ of the crime must be reached and that ‘threshold’ is measured by the maximum custodial sentence that can be given to an adult who commits the offence. Now that some wildlife offences have reached the ‘threshold’ it is possible for the police to use covert cameras to obtain evidence in certain cases. Given that the National Wildlife Crime Unit gathers intelligence on offences such as badger baiting and raptor crime, given that these are national priorities, and given that the police acknowledge that these offences are often ‘organised’ we look forward to the deluge of cases that can now be brought.

The use of camera evidence will also, we are sure be welcomed by the various shooting and gamekeeping organisations. They have always committed to ridding the countryside of the scourge of wildlife crime however sometimes they have suggested that evidence has been ‘planted’ to damage the reputation of shooting and gamekeeping. With the targeted deployment of covert cameras it will finally be possible to establish who is really responsible for the appalling catalogue of wildlife crimes that blight our countryside and destroy our natural heritage.

No doubt the police and prosecutors too will be glad to have the extra powers. After years of complaints from the public that little effective action was being taken against wildlife crime and years of explanations from police and prosecutors about how difficult obtaining evidence was, they finally have a tool to enable them to make a major step forward in wildlife crime and detection. We are sure they will be swift to use it and remove this stain from our countryside and we look forward to reporting the catalogue of cases that will no doubt result.

This seeming minor change in the law has the capacity to be a real ‘game changer’ and one that we are sure that all law abiding citizens, be they country dwellers or town dwellers, will welcome.