We are fast approaching the anniversary of the submission of the Lead Ammunition Group’s report to ministers. We have seen no visible sign of activity from the minister with responsibility for this issue – Rory Stewart. He appears to have dozed off.
The recently published LAG minutes from a teleconference held in late April are informative on a number of issues:
- it is clear that the original LAG intention was to publish their risk assessments in full in 2013 but were warned off this option by the Defra representative at the time who didn’t want ministers (different ones then) to be given a thorny problem with no solution. So LAG rather feebly agreed and the scientific assessments on the risks of lead ammunition use have been kept secret for, now, about three years. LAG should simply publish this stuff straight away – the anniversary of the submission of their report to Defra would be a good time to do that. The LAG need to provide an alarm clock for the minister.
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Anonymous illustrator , via Wikimedia Commons the minutes of the meeting suggest that LAG is asking the minister his intentions on publication – it appears the minister has dozed off on this issue. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
- despite rumours to the contrary months ago, DEFRA has not seen any need to put the scientific report out to peer review – this is probably because it would be difficult to assemble more expertise than that of the LAG itself.
- the bizarre suggestion is made that the report of LAG should be submitted in confidence to a European process reviewing lead because the minister has been dilatory in making any response. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
- it is revealed that the Chair of LAG, Prof Len Levy ( a LAG member) and Prof Ian Newton (not a LAG member) had met the minister, Rory Stewart, to assess how deeply he was slumbering. The letter from LAG to the minister after their meeting is now on the LAG website, as is the minister’s reply. The main things to come out of this exchange is that the minister didn’t bring up any scientific problems with LAG’s work, having had 10 months for DEFRA to review the work, but he was so poorly briefed, or maybe merely snoozing, that he asked a silly question about bacon sandwiches.
- FSA confirmed that there ‘…is no significant conflict of opinion in relation to the risk from lead that FSA is aware of – indeed there was scientific consensus on the human health risks from lead in food and there was no debate to be had.’
That last statement is important and someone maybe ought to shout it in the sleeping minister’s ear because it means that :
‘Almost certainly some 10,000 children are growing up in households where they
could regularly be eating sufficient game shot with lead ammunition to cause them
neurodevelopmental harm and other health impairments. Tens of thousands of adults are also exposed to additional lead by eating game as part of their normal diet, and
this could cause a range of low level but harmful health effects, of which they will not
be aware.‘
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Presumably they are trying to find some way to tie it into the hysterical rhetoric over Europe. Or trying to word “sod off you filthy proles, we’ll do as we please and screw you” in a way that doesn’t sound so
honestdirect.Having been responsible for selling enough venison to pay maybe 50 rangers wages at least, I’d see this as a big issue for the people who make their living out of selling game, as opposed to those for whom shooting is simply a sport. Were I involved today I’d be moving fast to cover my income stream by getting out of lead as quickly as possible – but would still be fearful that the pro-lead shooting lobby would succeed in trashing my market anyway. The conservation/ environment lobby has been very, very slow to recognise there are routes other than through government – though not this blog, which has shown the way in its focus on attitudes to lead from businesses like M&S and Rules Restaurant.
In the meantime, Rory is far from asleep – he is actively fulfilling his brief ‘do nothing, don’t spend any money and avoid any controversy’. We may not be able to do much about the first – but aren’t doing too badly on the second !
In the LAG minutes, it seems obvious to me that they are equally frustrated with the foot-dragging going in DEFRA. The part I found most interesting was this:-
“the new evidence and information received by the Group in the past year tended to confirm and clarify the risks identified as well as the insufficiency of mitigations in place e.g. existing regulations for wetlands and FSA’s more general advice to consumers. There had been no evidence or information to suggest that the risks had changed or that vulnerable groups, both human and wildlife, were less at risk than they had been.”
And yet there is no action – no report published, no FSA guidelines amended. Meanwhile the risk to public health is allowed to go on. This allows businesses like M & S and others to start/continue selling lead contaminated, unregulated grouse meat. One can only assume it is because it would upset the shooting industry. What other reason can there be?
“…were warned off this option by the Defra representative at the time who didn’t want ministers (different ones then) to be given a thorny problem with no solution.”
Always a good way of resolving a problem – sweeping it under the carpet!
Three questions.
Is it possible to institute a Judicial Review into the FSA’s lack of action?
If so how much would it cost?
If so how might we raise the money?
George Eustice is for Brexit;
“The birds and habitats directives would go,” he said, referring to two key pieces of European environmental law. “A lot of the national directives they instructed us to put in place would stay. But the directives’ framework is so rigid that it is spirit-crushing.
“If we had more flexibility, we could focus our scientists’ energies on coming up with new, interesting ways to protect the environment, rather than just producing voluminous documents from Brussels.”
The leave camp says that in the event of a Brexit vote, £2bn would be earmarked for conservation spending out of the money it expects to recoup from payments to Brussels.
Oh yeah?
But Rory is for Remain:
But Eustice’s fellow environment minister Rory Stewart told the Guardian that EU membership was crucial to the UK’s environmental protections.
“It is European action that put a stop to the devastating impact on our forests of acid rain, and we are now tackling air quality by cutting harmful emissions.
etc. etc. etc.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/30/brexit-spirit-crushing-green-directives-minister-george-eustice
A couple more quotes if I may;
One of the original authors of EU environmental legislation was Stanley Johnson, Boris’s father, who now co-chairs Environmentalists for Europe. He said of Eustice’s proposal: “I am absolutely shocked and horrified at what looks like a no-holds-barred attack by the Brexiteers on an agreed consensus that the environment benefits from a common approach.
“Don’t tell me that a new Brexit-led British government is going to put environmental regulations at top of its pile on June 24th,” Johnson added. “It is not going to happen.”
Martin Harper, the conservation director of the RSPB, said: “These nature directives have been the cornerstone of nature conservation in Europe since coming into force. Not only have they improved the fortunes of threatened species but they are essential if we want to meet our international biodiversity commitments.”
Given the gravity of proven health risks attached to lead ammunition, it is both shocking and deeply suspicious that no published report has appeared. Moreover, it is criminal that no government agency and/or the government has acted upon the report and banned lead ammunition without limitations.
How does a ‘class action’ work. They seem keen on them in the USA. Is there any way of bringing a case against the Government for harm caused through their lack of action?