Deer (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 1996

10 Authorisation by Commission of certain acts

(1) After section 33 of the principal Act there shall be inserted the following section—

“33A Authorisation by Commission of certain acts

(1) Where a person does any act, in accordance with an authorisation given under subsection (2) or (3) below, which would otherwise be an offence under subsection (1) or (3A) of section 23 of this Act, he shall not be guilty of an offence under the said section 23.

(2) Notwithstanding anything in any agreement between an occupier of agricultural land or of woodland and the owner thereof, but subject to subsections (7) to (10) below, the Commission may authorise such an occupier or any person nominated in writing by such an occupier to take or kill, and to sell or otherwise dispose of, any deer on any such land or woodland during the period specified in section 23(1) of this Act, where they are satisfied that the taking or killing is necessary to prevent serious damage to crops, pasture, human or animal foodstuffs, or to woodland, and no other means of control which might reasonably be adopted in the circumstances would be adequate.

(3) Subject to subsections (7) to (10) below, the Commission may authorise the owner of any land which deer are on, or any person nominated in writing by him, to use any vehicle to drive deer in order to take or kill them for the purposes of deer management; and, for the purposes of this section—

• “deer management” does not include driving deer in the course of any sporting activity, and

• “vehicle” does not include any aircraft or hovercraft.

(4) Where a person does any act, in accordance with an authorisation given under subsection (5) or (6) below, which would otherwise be an offence under section 21(5) of this Act, he shall not be guilty of that offence.

(5) Without prejudice to section 33(3) of this Act, notwithstanding anything in any agreement between an occupier of land and the owner thereof and subject to subsections (7) to (10) below, the Commission may authorise the owner or occupier of any land or any person nominated in writing by either of them to take or kill, and to sell or otherwise dispose of, any deer found on that land during the period specified in relation to that species and sex of deer in an order under section 21 of this Act, where they are satisfied that the taking or killing is necessary—

(a) to prevent serious damage to any unenclosed woodland which forms part of that land, or serious damage, whether direct or indirect, to the natural heritage generally; or

(b) in the interests of public safety,

and no other means of control which might reasonably be adopted in the circumstances would be adequate.

(6) Subject to subsections (7) to (10) below, the Commission may, for any scientific purpose, authorise any person to take or kill deer during the period specified in relation to that species and sex of deer in an order under section 21 of this Act.

(7) The Commission shall not grant an authorisation under subsection (2), (3), (5) or (6) above unless they are satisfied that the person concerned is a fit and competent person to receive an authorisation under that subsection.

(8) An authorisation shall—

(a) be in writing; and

(b) specify the duration of its validity.

(9) No authorisation shall be granted under subsection (2) or (3) above unless a relevant code has been published under subsection (11) below, and any such authorisation shall contain a condition that the person concerned shall comply with the relevant provisions of any such code.

(10) An authorisation may contain such conditions, other than that mentioned in subsection (9) above, as the Commission thinks fit.

(11) The Commission shall prepare and publish, and from time to time revise, a code of practice for—

(a) night shooting; and

(b) the use of vehicles for the purposes of deer management,

to which they shall have regard when exercising their power under subsection (2) or, as the case may be, (3) above.”.

(2) Where on the commencement of this section a code has been published under section 33(4D) of the principal Act, that code shall be treated, after that commencement, as if it had been published under section 33A(11)(a) of that Act.

(3) Until a code is published under section 33A(11)(b) of the principal Act (which is inserted by subsection (1) above), section 23(3A) of that Act shall have effect as if for the word “any”, in the second place where it occurs, there is substituted the word “unenclosed”.