Sporting Rates for Deer Management
- Zoë Hughes
- May 2
- 3 min read
Worried about sporting rates affecting deer management on your land?
The good news is crop protection, and supplying venison into the food chain, is explicitly exempt from fees under the new rules. More details below.
As a venison business we recently reached out to local farmers to offer deer management for crop protection throughout the summer (see more about that in our FAQs). Deer stalking is typically an autumn and winter activity, so we wanted to bridge that gap by offering a service just as crops begin to need protecting from grazing deer in the spring and summer. We would be able to boost our own supply of venison in the process. It’s a win-win, we thought…
In April 2026, the Scottish Government shocked rural communities by introducing new charges for specific types of deer management, where sport shooting is involved. These changes were made without consultation with relevant groups and they caused a bit of a stir and a lot of confusion. These charges are called “Sporting Rates” and have existed for a long time, but the government essentially removed previous exemptions to the charges meaning more people would have to pay up.
In response to us reaching out to farmers, we noticed lots of people understandably hesitant to manage the deer on their land at all due to these new potential charges. I get it, no one wants to do something that might result in vague additional charges.
The good news is that it’s actually much more straightforward than it might appear, and for most crop protection deer management scenarios, you have nothing to worry about.
Following a U-turn earlier in 2026, the Scottish Government said deer management carried out solely to prevent damage to agricultural production or for environmental protection, where the venison enters the human food chain, is explicitly protected from the Sporting Rate changes that came into force in April 2026.
The exact wording from the Government Website states:
“(i) deer forests on which – (aa) shooting rights are exercised solely for the purposes of environmental management or for preventing damage to woodland or to agricultural production, or a combination of those purposes, and (bb) any deer shot are made available for human consumption as venison, and (ii) deer forests on which shooting rights are not exercised in practice”
In plain terms: If you work with us for summer deer management to protect your crops, and the carcasses go into the food chain through us, you're exempt from charges under the new rules.
We’d like to reassure farmers and landowners that deer management for crop protection is totally exempt from these new Sporting Rate charges. This confirms you will NOT have to pay additional Sporting Rates for this type of deer management. The new charges apply only where sport shooting is happening, either instead of crop protection or alongside it.
In this context, Sport Shooting can be defined as “shooting where the primary purpose is recreation or trophy” i.e someone pays to come and shoot deer for the experience or the antlers. As opposed to shooting where the primary purpose is controlling deer numbers to protect crops, woodland or habitat, with the meat going into the food chain. There should be a clear distinction between the two, however Scots law makes no official definition of the difference between sport shooting and deer management. This is where a problem arises and the waters become murky.
That said, if you have:
no paying guests shooting deer,
your intention is to protect crops or habitats and
the carcasses are processed for food,
Then you are well and truly safe from the new charges.
If you have some paying guests and do some crop protection you are most likely going to have to pay the charges, and we'd recommend seeking advice from a rural surveyor or BASC in that case.
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