Guns, Beaters, Flankers and Pickers-Up: How to Tell Defra About Your Days on the Moor
If you beat, flank, pick up, handle dogs or shoot on a grouse moor, you have first-hand experience that Defra has asked to hear about in their Call for Evidence on game shooting.
This guide explains how to put it into a short, honest answer to Question 29.
Quick summary
Anyone taking part in grouse shooting days can answer Question 29, with no need to own land.
Describe your own experience with simple, honest numbers, and note its limits.
Include any negatives you've experienced and leave economic points out, as Defra assesses those separately.
Write it yourself and submit by midnight on 1 November 2026 via Smart Survey or email.
Why your experience counts
Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is running a Call for Evidence on gamebird release, shooting and welfare during rearing in England. A Call for Evidence is an open request for information.
Defra says no decisions have yet been taken on future policy and that it wants to improve its evidence before any are made.
Anyone can respond. Defra welcomes responses from local communities and land users as well as people directly involved in shooting, so you do not need to own or manage land. It has also said it will consider well-documented personal and operational experience alongside published research.
You don't need to produce a scientific study. A clear account of what you have done and seen on the moor can count as evidence.
Where Question 29 fits
After the opening questions (Questions 1 to 6), most Guns, beaters, flankers, pickers-up and dog handlers without specialist evidence can go straight to Question 29. If you use the online survey, Question 7 is a routing question. In most cases, choose "Answer questions on gamebird release and shooting".
If you hold direct records on something else, such as a wildfire you helped tackle, our guide lists other questions that may apply.
What Defra is asking
Question 29 asks: "Are there any additional positive or negative impacts, not covered above, for example recreational benefits?" It is optional.
The earlier questions deal with topics such as biodiversity, disease and wildlife crime. Question 29 is where Defra asks about other effects, good or bad, including what taking part means for the people involved. That could cover time outdoors, physical activity, working with dogs, friendships, learning practical rural skills, or bringing younger people into the activity.
What to include
A simple structure makes your answer easy to follow. You might cover:
Your role, such as Gun, beater, flanker, picker-up or dog handler.
Where you take part (the moor, area or county).
How many years you have been involved.
Roughly how many days you take part each season.
What you do on a typical day and what you have seen.
The social or recreational effect it has had on you, good or bad.
Who else is involved, such as family, local people or different age groups.
Any diary, photographs or other records you have.
A short note on the limits of your evidence.
Use the items that apply to you and leave out the rest.
Use simple, honest numbers
Defra has said evidence carries more weight when the context is clear, and figures give that context. "I've beaten for 16 years and usually go out on 10 to 15 days a season" tells Defra far more than "I've done it for years".
You could also say roughly how many beaters, flankers and pickers-up are out on a typical day, or how many generations of your family have taken part. Don't invent precision. If you aren't sure of a number, write "around", "about" or "typically".
Keep it about you
Describe what you know from your own experience. "I've beaten on this moor for 18 years and it's a big part of my social life" is good evidence. "Grouse shooting improves everyone's mental health" is a claim that one person's experience cannot support.
There is some research on this. A survey of 2,424 people taking part in driven game shooting found they reported higher wellbeing than a national comparison, and 91.3% gave connection to the countryside as a reason for taking part (Latham-Green, Hazenberg & Denny, 2021, Ageing & Society).
Your own answer doesn't need to mention the study.
Leave the economics out
Defra is commissioning a separate independent assessment of the economic value of the gamebird sector. Points about jobs, wages or local spending therefore don't belong in Question 29.
The social side of your role still counts. A local joiner who says beating is one of the main ways they meet people from neighbouring villages is giving social evidence. Working out what that person earns or spends would be economic evidence.
Write it yourself
Please don't copy another person's answer or a template. Identical or copied responses are less useful to Defra than a genuine account of your own days on the moor.
How and when to respond
The Call for Evidence closes at midnight on 1 November 2026. Defra's preferred route is its online Smart Survey. If you can't use it, email your response to gamebirds@defra.gov.uk and state clearly that your evidence relates to Question 29.
Why this matters
Upland communities and the way moorland is managed deserve to be understood properly, and the people who take part season after season are well placed to describe them.
