Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and
Hunting Bill
11:00 am
Mr Adrian Flook (Taunton, Conservative)
I did mention that figure, and according to my hon. Friend the Member for North Wiltshire, it is over 3,000. He has mentioned a figure of 3,500. I believe the figure to be 2,800, of which 70 are taken—this is on Exmoor, not the Quantocks—by the hunt each year in the process of hunting. Those are the figures that I was given. I hope that that answers the intervention of the hon. Member for West Ham.
If no hunting has taken place, large numbers of landowners will take out large elements of the deer herd. During the first sitting, in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex, who said that the deer would all be shot if there were a ban on hunting, the Under-Secretary said from a sedentary position, ''Don't exaggerate''. It is not necessary to take it from my hon. Friend. The Exmoor national park authority
has said that a ban would affect the future sustainability of the whole herd. That is what the banning of stag hunting would do, which is why amendment No. 20 should be included. It would give a broader meaning to utility so that stag hunting can be considered fairly under the utility test, without discussing clause 6.