You may recall that we raised concerns about Scottish General Licences back in August and unfortunately it now seems that our fears have been realized after a last minute change by SNH to their General Licence which are to take effect from 1st January 2014.
Specifically we are concerned that the changes to the licence to include “an enabling paragraph” will be granting civil servants legal powers without evidence of a criminal offence, an approach which is too easily open to abuse.
We are in agreement with BASC regarding the consultation which as with the recent airgun consultation shows that the Scottish Government is more concerned with ticking the consultation box rather than actually going through the process in a manner that would meet even their own documented standards; by allow a minimum of 12 weeks for responses instead of only 6.
We will keep you informed of any developments, for further information please see this update from BASC.
