Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and least suffering
Hunting Bill
8:55 am
Mr Hugo Swire (East Devon, Conservative)
I want to add a couple of remarks in support of what my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames) said. We have been in this situation before; national coursing has been the subject of about four inquiries over the years. Following my research, and having listened to the points made by the National Coursing Club, I can point out that that club has responded every time to the concerns raised. It has been an entirely responsible body, from which many people could learn a great deal.
The Burns inquiry, as the Minister admitted—he will no doubt contradict me if this is not the case—failed to establish a link between coursing and cruelty. We have been told that coursing fails the Minister's utility criteria. No doubt we will argue about that in greater detail later, but will the Minister address, or at least comment on, various points that the National Coursing Club has made including, as my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex mentioned, length of slip? In response to questions and concerns raised over the years, slippers are now encouraged to give the hare a far greater chance. Will the Minister comment on the building of soughs and on pickers-up? There has been an increase in the number of people, trained and subject to regulations, employed by the National Coursing Club along the length of the course to ensure that the hare is dispatched as quickly as possible.
All those measures suggest to me that the club is an entirely responsible body in its provision of sport and training for its dogs. Will the Minister deal with those questions?