Defra Gamebird Call for Evidence: How to Submit Your Own Evidence
Quick summary
Defra's Gamebird Call for Evidence closes at midnight on 1 November 2026.
Two practical guides: one for moor owners and managers, one for uplands participants.
Estate records and individual first-hand experience are different; Question 29 covers recreational benefits.
Respond via Defra's Smart Survey or email gamebirds@defra.gov.uk; MA Zoom meeting at 6pm, 30 September.
Following publication of the Moorland Association’s draft response to Defra’s Gamebird Call for Evidence, we have now produced two practical guides to help people submit their own evidence directly to Defra.
The Call for Evidence closes at midnight on 1 November 2026. Defra says that it is seeking evidence on the positive and negative impacts of gamebird release and shooting and associated land management, and that it will consider monitoring data and well-documented operational or experiential evidence as well as published research.
You do not need to answer every question and you do not need to produce an academic paper. A short response dealing with one or two questions can still be useful where it is clear what the evidence is, where and when it relates to, how it was recorded and what it can reasonably show.
Which guidance should I use?
We have produced different guidance because the evidence held by somebody managing a grouse moor may be very different from the evidence held by somebody who shoots, beats, picks up, farms, undertakes contract work or otherwise lives, works or participates in the uplands.
If you own or manage a grouse moor: use our Practical Guide for Moorland Association Members. This is aimed particularly at people who may hold estate records such as bird counts, habitat and peatland-restoration information, SSSI records, consents, grouse counts and bags, wildfire information and other management records.
If you shoot, beat, flank, pick up, work dogs, farm, undertake contract work or otherwise live, work or participate in the uplands: use our Practical Guide for People Who Live, Work or Participate in England’s Uplands. You do not need to own or manage a grouse moor. First-hand experience may itself be relevant where it is described carefully and proportionately.
Estates may wish to circulate this second guide directly to Guns, beaters, flankers, pickers-up, dog handlers, farmers, contractors and others who may have relevant first-hand evidence.
If you want to see the wider evidence being submitted by the MA: read our draft organisational response and accompanying Evidence Schedule. We continue to welcome corrections, additional evidence and practical examples which may strengthen or qualify the draft before it is submitted.
Estate evidence and individual evidence are different
The MA’s own submission can bring together published research, Government and statutory evidence, commissioned reviews and wider practitioner evidence. It cannot, however, substitute for information held by individual moors or by the people who actually participate in upland management and shooting.
An estate may hold several years of species monitoring, grouse counts, bag records, restoration information or wildfire records.
A beater, flanker, picker-up, Gun or dog handler may hold a different kind of evidence: how long they have participated, how frequently they take part, what participation involves, the people they meet through it, physical activity, working with dogs, connections with the countryside or other social and recreational effects.
For many people in that second group, Question 29 of Defra’s Call for Evidence is likely to be the most relevant. Defra specifically asks there about additional positive or negative impacts, including recreational benefits. Our guidance explains how personal experience can be presented as evidence without claiming more than it can reasonably establish.
It also includes an Annex showing the other Defra questions which may be relevant where somebody happens to hold more specialist evidence - for example on biodiversity monitoring, wildfire response, the food chain or another particular issue.
Estates can help others contribute
We would encourage estates to consider sharing the second guide with the wider group of people who participate in or around the moor.
That might include Guns, beaters, flankers, pickers-up, dog handlers, farmers, contractors and others with relevant first-hand experience.
The purpose is not to generate identical submissions or general expressions of support for grouse shooting. Defra is conducting a Call for Evidence, and individual responses will be more useful where they describe the respondent’s own experience in their own words.
For example, somebody who has beaten on the same moor for 20 years may be able to provide useful first-hand evidence about participation and community connections.
Somebody who has helped at a wildfire may instead have operational evidence about access, equipment, fuel conditions or response. The relevant question is simply: what do you know directly, and what evidence can you provide to support it?
Our participant guidance is designed to help people make that distinction. It specifically warns against unsupported assertions, second-hand stories and claims which go beyond what the evidence can show.
How to respond
Defra’s preferred method is its online Smart Survey. If you cannot use Smart Survey, Defra says that responses can also be submitted by email to gamebirds@defra.gov.uk, with supporting documents where appropriate.
The Call for Evidence closes at midnight on 1 November 2026.
Members who want help preparing their own submission can also join the MA’s online Zoom meeting at 6pm on 30 September, when we will talk through the process and answer practical questions. You can register here:
The important point is that useful evidence does not all sit in one place. Estate records matter, but so can the direct experience of the people who work, participate and spend time in England’s uplands. Our two guides are intended to make it easier for each group to contribute the evidence they actually hold.
