To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to his answer of 18 November 1997, Official Report, column 154, what changes in his policy on fox hunting have been made since June; and what guidance his Department has issued on this subject since that date. [17344]
There has been no change in my Department's policy on foxhunting since June. On a matter of detail, following the announcement on 8 August 1997 by the Masters of Foxhounds Association that the practice of digging out foxes once they have gone to ground will in future only take place at the request of the landowner or occupier, my Department has made it known to all hunts which have a licence to operate on the Defence Estate that the Ministry of Defence, as landowner, will not request or allow digging out on the Defence Estate.