Fox Hunting (118A/20)
Request
- If known, how many incidents of illegal fox hunting with hounds, under The Hunting Act 2004, have been reported during each year since September 2015?
- How are these incidents / crimes categorised / recorded?
- In each Year since 2015 how many arrests have been made of
a)Fox / Trail Hunters and their support
b)Anti-Hunt Activists / Saboteurs - How many incidents have been submitted to The CPS for review or charges brought
- What were the reasons why incidents have not been submitted to The CPS or Charges brought
- Do you have a wildlife crime officer / Team? If so what is their duties and role? Is this role funded?
- Do you have a hunt liaison officer? If so what is their duties and role? Is this role funded?
- How many officers receive training in identifying illegal (fox) hunting
- Who provides the training?
- What has been the average annual cost of policing organised hunting with hounds (Fox / Trail Hunting) since 2015
- What is the police strategy for enforcing The Hunting Act (2004) and activities of Organised fox / trail Hunts and gathering evidence of illegal hunting
- What is the police strategy regarding anti-hunt activists / saboteurs/hunt monitors
- Do you insist that organised hunts, when claiming to trail hunt, supply you with weekly meet card; a trail hunt map; a risk assessment; insurance; licence for the importation of fox urine? If not, why not?
- How do you monitor the activities of trail hunts e.g. conduct random checks to ensure that they are complying with anti-hunt legislation
- How do you determine whether an organised hunt’s activity involve trail hunting, Drag Hunting or fox hunting
- What preventative measures do you have in place to prevent an illegal fox hunting taking place during a trail hunt
- I would also like the following information on:
a)Whether there is any current operation related to the policing of hunting and to hunt protest activity in West Midlands police area?
b)If such an operation exists, when did it begin, what name does it operate under and what is its remit?
c)Whether West midlands police has entered into any agreement with any landowners or hunt organisers? - What is your policy on police officers riding out with organised trail/fox hunts
- Do officers involved in preventing wildlife crime need to declare an interest if they hunt
Response
Please find attached our response.
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.