RSPB SCOTLAND has renewed its call for Scotland's grouse moors to be placed under a regulatory regime capable of closing down any operations where there is evidence of raptor persecution.

Releasing its latest report on the topic, 'Illegal Killing of Birds of Prey in Scotland 2015-17', the wildlife charity insisted that there were 'clear associations' between the decline or absence of these birds in parts of Scotland’s uplands, and intensive grouse moor management.

The RSPB's campaigning on the issue comes as the independent grouse moor review set up by the Scottish Government in 2017 approaches its conclusion, with a report due in spring 2019.

Citing evidence from police investigations, research and eye-witness accounts, the RSPB's report asserted that the 'vast majority' of raptor persecution incidents occurred in areas of Scotland’s uplands managed for intensive driven grouse shooting. During the three-year period covered, there were 38 confirmed, detected incidents of illegal killing of protected birds of prey, including shooting, trapping, illegal poisoning and nest destruction.

The charity also repeated its claim that the crimes being recorded are a fraction of what is actually taking place, contrary to claims by some in the grouse moor industry that raptor persecution is in decline.

The report cited a national survey of the UK’s hen harriers, undertaken in 2016, which found that Scotland’s breeding population had fallen by 9% since 2010, but that the number on grouse moors had fallen by 57%. A further study, commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage, confirmed that the sustained level of illegal killing remained the major factor preventing the growth of northern Scotland’s red kite population.

RSPB complained that, despite 'robust' wildlife crime legislation, improved to a large extent since 1999 by the Scottish Parliament, there have been very few actual prosecutions, with only five individuals convicted of offences related to raptor persecution in these three years.

Head of investigations, Ian Thomson, said: “There is clear and repeated evidence that this criminal activity is largely taking place on Scotland’s grouse moors, but the grouse industry has not addressed this long-standing and endemic problem; instead we are seeing increasing signs of a culture where some grouse moor managers feel, and act, as if they are untouchable. We believe that the majority of the Scottish public have had enough; repeated warnings from Government have not been heeded, and the time must be right for tougher action."

RSPB Scotland’s head of species, Duncan Orr-Ewing, added: “Self-regulation, voluntary codes of practice, and dialogue have all patently failed to address cultural and systematic criminality, as well as bad land management practices. We have reached a point where it is abundantly clear that driven grouse shooting must be made more publicly accountable and effectively regulated through a robust licensing system, conditional on legal and sustainable land management practices.”

Responding, the Scottish Gamekeepers Association said: "Whilst the SGA takes wildlife and raptor crime extremely seriously, we do not endorse the many unofficial RSPB reports on this subject. Official Scottish Government statistics, publicly available on SASA's website, show a rate of decline in raptor persecution in recent years which is not matched by many other types of recorded offence in Scotland.

"The latest figures show the lowest incidences of raptor crime on record so significant progress has been made, although complacency is not an option. It is to be predicted that RSPB would cobble together this unsolicited report at a time when they are campaigning politically to have grouse moors licensed in Scotland. This has been a long-held aspiration of theirs, with many of their supporters hoping this will be a first step towards an outright ban."