Hunting Bill to fall short of total ban

New measures to outlaw blood sports will be brought forward this week – but are expected to be a fudge that will anger both anti- and pro-hunt campaigners.

Alun Michael, the rural affairs minister charged by Tony Blair to find a solution to the long-running dispute over hunting, is expected to propose a total ban on hare coursing and stag hunting.

But the midweek announcement will fall short of suggesting an all-out ban on fox hunting. It will commend local tribunals to judge individual hunts on their levels of cruelty and utility before deciding whether or not they should be licensed.

The compromise follows a series of public inquiries held by Mr Michael. The Queen's Speech last month signalled a Bill to "enable Parliament to reach a conclusion on the contentious issue of hunting with dogs in England and Wales". Hunting is banned in Scotland under devolved powers.

Anti-hunt Labour MPs have vowed to push through a total ban. One said: "We'll put down amendments and we'll get the ban. It's what people told us they wanted, it's what the Prime Minister promised them and anything less just won't do."

But campaigners are concerned it may not be so easy to push through a ban unless the Government makes it a clear option in the Bill.

A source for the Campaign to Protect Hunted Animals, an umbrella group for animal welfare charities, said they had made the case against hunting on both cruelty and utility grounds. The source said there was no evidence to suggest hunting reduced the fox population and plenty to prove it was cruel to the hunted animal.

"Clearly for reasons that entirely escape me the Government is intent on doing something other than bringing in a ban," the source said.

The compromise option is a victory for the Middle Way group, a small band of MPs who advocate regulated hunting under licence. A spokes-man for the group said the longer the row over hunting went on, the more likely it was their view would prevail.