The National Gamekeepers' Organisation

The NGO will be back at the Great Yorkshire Show this year from Tuesday 14 - Friday 17 July, in our normal location above the Countryside Arena.

We will have our membership team on the stand, as well as a selection of merchandise, displays on the upland landscape and wildlife, and local gamekeepers on the stand every day.

We also have some exciting visitors to our stand - look out for more details in the next few days!!

We hope to see you there.

Wild Game Meat Hygiene Course – Oxfordshire 7th August

If you are supplying wild game, this NGO-accredited Wild Game Meat Hygiene Course is the industry standard qualification.

This comprehensive one-day course covers both large and small game, taking you through best practice from field to larder, including:

• Large game – deer and wild boar
• Small game – pheasant, partridge, duck, rabbit and hare
• Food safety, hygiene and inspection
• Legal requirements for supplying game meat
• Assessment leading to your NGO certificate and unique Trained Hunter ID number

Successful candidates receive an NGO certificate and hunter ID, enabling them to supply game to approved game handling establishments in line with current requirements.

Course fee: £200

To book your place, contact Mike Fellows directly:

Phone: 07940 909250

Email: [email protected]

Places are limited, so book early to secure your space.

A Hampshire gamekeeper managing a driven pheasant and partridge shoot has achieved a thriving, successful stone curlew breeding programme on his shoot.

By creating precisely the right habitat and maintaining a robust predator control programme, this keeper is giving one of England's rarest breeding waders the conditions they need not just to nest, but to fledge chicks successfully. The results are there for anyone to see. You cannot argue with abundance.

RSPB volunteers visit to monitor and ring the birds — but it is the keeper who has built this from the ground up. The habitat creation, the predator management, the day-to-day commitment to making this work — that falls entirely to him.

Stone curlew are an amber-listed species with a restricted breeding range across England's chalk downlands and Breckland. Successful breeding on a working game shoot is no accident. It is the direct result of skilled, dedicated land management by a keeper who cares about what lives on his patch.

This is what Britain's largest group of privately funded conservationists delivers. Gamekeepers do not wait to be asked. They get on with it — creating and holding the conditions that rare and declining species need to survive and breed.

A brilliant example of gamekeeping conservation in action. Well done to all involved.

The NGO is not just for gamekeepers. It’s for all country sports enthusiasts and everyone who cares about the countryside.

👉 Visit our website to join the NGO for just £55 per year: https://nationalgamekeepers.org.uk/join-online

1 week to go until the Great Yorkshire Show

We’ll be at The National Gamekeepers' Organisation stand.

Please stop by and say hi!

These videos – one of a flock of cormorants on the Eden, the second of Goosanders working as a group – demonstrate the situation when it comes to fish-eating birds and are an example of why we decided to launch a petition to add cormorants, goosanders and red-breasted mergansers to Schedule 2.1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

Cormorant numbers have risen from around 2,000 in the 1980s to over 65,000 today. Goosander and merganser populations have similarly expanded. These fish-eating birds are causing serious, documented damage to salmon, trout and coarse fish stocks across the UK.

Click here to sign the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/771307

Or click here to read more about our request: https://nationalgamekeepers.org.uk/articles/ngo-petition-asks-for-fish-eating-birds-to-to-added-to-schedule-2-1-of-the-wildlife-and

Wild Game Meat Hygiene Course – Oxfordshire – Friday 7th August 2026

The NGO's Wild Game Meat Hygiene Course is now regarded as the industry standard in game meat handling. This one-day course covers small and large game meat hygiene from field to larder, including deer, wild boar, pheasant, partridge, duck, rabbit and hare.

Successful candidates receive a unique hunters ID number, authorising them to sell game meat to game handling establishments, a legal requirement for anyone wishing to sell game to a dealer. The day includes a short multiple choice test, with a certificate and credit card style proof of completion for those who pass.

Candidates should arrive by 9am, with the course usually finishing by late lunchtime. Tea and coffee provided, please bring your own lunch.

Location: Kingston Lisle, Wantage, Oxfordshire
Cost: £200 inc VAT

To book, call Mike Fellows on 07940 909250 or email [email protected]

The National Gamekeepers' Organisation is aware of the recent vote by the European Union's REACH Committee on proposals to restrict the use of lead shot used in shotgun cartridges.

One of the most significant changes is that the proposed restrictions on lead bullets and shotgun slugs have been removed from the proposals altogether. The legislation now focuses on lead shot used in shotgun cartridges, with a seven-year transition period before the new restrictions would take effect if the legislation is finally approved.

This transition period is significantly longer than originally proposed, giving manufacturers, shooting organisations and users more time to adapt should the legislation come into force.

Read more here.

https://nationalgamekeepers.org.uk/articles/eu-vote-on-lead-gunshot-proposals-what-it-means-for-uk-shooters

Anglers. Fishery Managers. Gamekeepers. We need your support!

The NGO has launched a UK Parliament petition asking the government to amend Schedule 2.1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to list cormorants, goosanders and red-breasted mergansers as species that may be managed outside the close season. This would enable proportionate, licensed control to protect inland fisheries and migratory fish populations where serious damage is evidenced.

Signing takes less than a minute, but it sends a powerful message that those who care for our rivers, fisheries, wildlife and countryside expect to be heard. If we reach 10,000 signatures, this means the Government must issue an official response. At 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in Parliament.

Click here to sign the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/771307

Or click here to read more about our request: https://nationalgamekeepers.org.uk/articles/ngo-petition-asks-for-fish-eating-birds-to-to-added-to-schedule-2-1-of-the-wildlife-and

Today (29 June 2026), changes to the law on sound moderators and flash suppressors come into force under Section 44 and Schedule 5 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026.

This is a welcome change that removes unnecessary administration, while keeping appropriate safeguards in place.

Until today, sound moderators for Section 1 fi****ms were treated as fi****ms in their own right. Anyone wishing to acquire or dispose of a sound moderator had to apply to their police fi****ms licensing department for a variation to their Firearm Certificate. From today, that requirement has been removed.

Click here to read more:

https://nationalgamekeepers.org.uk/articles/changes-to-the-law-on-sound-moderators-and-flash-suppressors-now-in-force