Parliament and Political

Much of ADMG’s political engagement is covered on other pages on our site – see News and E-Scope.  Links below are shown for items not covered elsewhere, or where it is sensible to package them together.

Managing Deer for Climate and Nature – Draft ADMG response – 29 February 2024

Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity. ADMG response – 13 December 2023

ADMG response to proposed changes to be made through secondary legislation following the Deer Working Group Report – June 2023

ADMG response to Future Grant Support for Forestry Consultation – May 2023

ADMG response to Forestry Grant Scheme consultation – May 2023

Additional Information from ADMG on the Land Reform in a Net Zero Nation Consultation – October 2022

ADMG response to Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy consultation – August 2022

Letter to Mairi McAllan, Minister for Environment, Biodiversity and Land Reform, re Use of Dogs to control foxes and other wild animals – 21 November 2021

A Declaration for Upland Deer Management – 19 April 2021

Letter to Ministers – impact of accommodation restrictions on deer stalking sector, 15 October 2020

Letter to Mairi Gougeon, Minister for Rural Affairs and Natural Environment re mountain hares, 16 June 2020

Letter to ADMG Chairman from Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance re business rates relief, 20 June 2020

Letter to Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, re business rates relief, 13 April 2020

Letter to Cabinet Secretary in response to Deer Working Group (DWG) Report, March 2020

ADMG detailed point-by-point response to Deer Working Group report, March 2020

Defra consultation on import and export of hunting trophies
ADMG response, January 2020

Debate on Deer Management in the Scottish Parliament – 2 May 2017

The ADMG briefing for MSPs for this debate can be accessed here
The debate can be watched on Scottish Parliament TV  here

Deer Management in Scotland: Report to the Scottish Government from Scottish Natural Heritage (2016)

ECCLR Committee Report on deer management in Scotland: Report to the Scottish Government from Scottish Natural Heritage

The ECCLR Committee’s report on the above  published in April 2017 can be accessed here

The full ADMG briefing note/commentary on the ECCLR Report can be accessed here

ECCLR Committee – final evidence session of the Deer Management Review
The Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (ECCLR) Committee of the Scottish Parliament undertook a review of deer management and, on 24 January 2017 in the final evidence session, heard for the second time from SNH.  This gave SNH an opportunity to respond to some of the criticism levelled at its Report Deer Management in Scotland published in November 2016.

You can watch the video record of this and the previous ECCLR Committee evidence sessions on Scottish Parliament TV here

The draft written report of that final evidence session is available here

ADMG oral evidence on the report
ADMG gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform (ECCLR) Committee on the above report on 13 December 2016.  The Scottish Parliament video of that evidence session is available here

ADMG’s written evidence on this report is available here

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill
Political measures in relation to deer management and consideration of the removal of the exemption from business rates for sporting and deer forests were brought forward in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed in the Scottish Parliament in March 2016 and has now become an Act following receipt of Royal Assent.

The following are documents and briefing notes produced through the process of the Bill.

ADMG  briefing for all constituency and list MSPs in Scotland’s upland deer management areas.

ADMG  information sheet (Q and A) for MSPs on the upland deer sector.

The Stage 1 report on the Bill was published by the RACCE Committee in December 2015.

A link to the ADMG response (14.12.2015) to the RACCE Committee Stage 1 report is also below.

This section gives easy links to relevant reports, consultation papers, and ADMG responses to consultations.

  • ADMG commentary on the RACCE Committee Stage 1 Report on Land Reform (Scotland) Bill — download
  • RACCE Committee Stage 1 Report on Land Reform (Scotland) Bill — download
  • Land Reform Consultation Response — download
  • Written evidence to the Rural Affairs and Climate Change Committee of the Scottish Parliament for the Review of the Impact of deer on Scotland’s Natural Heritage, (November 2013) — download
  • Recommendations of the Scottish Parliament RACCE Committee to the Minister for Rural Affairs, Climate Change and the Environment Paul Wheelhouse MSP following its inquiry into the Impact of deer on Scotland’s natural heritage — link.
  • RACCE Committee Inquiry – Impact of deer on Scotland’s natural heritage. Response of the Minister Paul Wheelhouse MSP to Rob Gibson MSP Convener of the RACCE Committee
  • ADMG Principles of Collaboration — Common Ground