Clause 8 - Tests for registration: utility and least suffering
Hunting Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Hugo Swire (East Devon, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman will allow me to conclude in my own time, I hope.
It would be useful if Committee members declared what contacts they have with outside bodies that may influence them. For my part, I am happy to declare on the record that I am a member of Countryside Alliance—indeed, it would be strange if I did not say so. When time has permitted, I have been out with the Mid-Devon foxhunts on Dartmoor. I have not done that for a few years, but I hope to do so again shortly to show my solidarity with them.
I have hunted on and off since I was 17 or 18 years old, and have never witnessed any cruelty. I have always regarded hunting as a perfectly fair pastime, but I fully understand that there are those who do not. Equally, I realise that some members of the Committee are genuinely unhappy with hunting, and that not all hunts have always behaved perfectly. I am perfectly happy with the self-regulatory authorities that organisations have come up with. The Independent Supervisory Authority on Hunting provides an effective regime of self-regulation, as does the Masters of Foxhounds Association and the Masters of Deerhounds Association.
However, I have changed my thinking: I originally voted for the status quo, but I am happy for hunting to be regulated in some way, if that is what the majority of the people of this country want. However, the people of this country, and all those who went to the trouble of writing to the Minister, testifying in Portcullis house, or writing—as I did—to the Burns committee, want to feel that the Minister is listening to the representations that are made to him. I have no hesitation in supporting the amendments, which would broaden the definition of utility.
If the Minister is genuinely willing to reach a workable compromise that will satisfy all parties, he should listen to us, too. As my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames) says, why does the Minister have it in for hare coursing and stag hunting? If he is so convinced that the criterion of utility that he came up with in his deliberations will deal fairly and effectively with other forms of hunting with dogs, why does he not have the courage of his convictions, and widen ''utility'' to include those two types of hunting, and let them take their chances with the tribunal and registrar?