EU votes for restrictions on lead shot

The EU REACH committee, the body responsible for the production and use of chemical substances, and their potential impacts on both human health and the environment, voted for a restriction on the use of lead shot over wetlands that when enacted would see a buffer zone of 100m around any body of water, no matter the size, and all peatlands. The regulation will now be put forward for approval and ratified at the latest by the beginning of 2021. It will then take effect at the beginning of 2023 in EU member states.

Potential to distrupt five year plan

The UK government may decide to adopt the regulation in 2023 depending on how it decides to legislate for REACH related laws. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland already have restrictions in place to mitigate the impact of lead shot on water birds. Depending on how the UK decides to proceed, the legislation could override the recent proposed 5 year phase out of lead shot in the UK. 

However, the decision is further proof, if it were needed, that an outright ban on lead shot, and potentially the sale of game shot with lead, is coming, probably sooner rather than later. 

Despite their support for a 5-year transition away from lead shot in game shooting, BASC warn that the proposed legislation is unenforcable, and that the wording means that the legislation effecively covers the use of lead in most - if not all - situations. 

Dr Matt Ellis, BASC’s head of science and chair of the FACE ammunition working group, said: “The new EU restrictions place shooters at risk of criminality if they fail to spot a puddle in the field. BASC will be lobbying the UK government not to adopt this regulation."

BASC say that they will BASC will fight the European Union’s restrictions on lead shot to ensure the UK’s five-year voluntary transition to sustainable ammunition is not impeded.