← Back to the claimsCommon claims
What the evidence says
“It’s a net drain on public services.”
What the evidence says
- A BASC report on the natural capital benefits of shooting values public health savings from avoided NHS and local authority costs at £64.3 million in 2023 prices (page 4).
- Of this, £20 million comes from physical health benefits and £6.7 million from mental health benefits for people involved in shooting. The remaining £37.6 million comes from air pollutants removed by woodland created by and managed for shooting.
- In the Value of Shooting 2024 survey, three out of four people who took part in shooting in 2022 agreed it was important to them and their personal wellbeing (page 20). This is what respondents said about themselves.
What the evidence does not show
- We have not found an estimate of the public costs of shooting in the documents we hold. Without one, the evidence cannot show a net figure either way.
- The £64.3 million is a modelled valuation. The report used expert opinion to decide how much of each benefit to attribute to shooting (page 5).
Correction. An earlier version of this card quoted a figure of around £500 million for replacing NHS social prescribing. We could not trace it to a source, so we have removed it.
Source
The natural capital benefits of shooting. Published by BASC, with eftec and Strutt & Parker’s research team. Values in 2023 prices. No publication date is given in the report. Pages 4 and 5.
The Value of Shooting 2024, summary report. Research by Cognisense, commissioned by 24 shooting and countryside organisations, with BASC as lead partner. Page 20.
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