Parliamentary debate on RSPCA prosecution issue scheduled
Next Tuesday, 29th January, a Westminster Hall debate will be held at Parliament on the RSPCA prosecution issue. The debate has been put down by former Countryside Alliance Chief Executive, Simon Hart MP, who was one of a group of Parliamentarians who wrote to the Charity Commission on this issue. Horse & Hound magazine reports: “Simon Hart told H&H that the purpose of the debate, the first of its kind, “was to question whether a charity that acts as a prosecutor, and which claims to comply with the Crown Prosecution Service’s guidance on prosecutions, is conflicted by the fact that it also has a political and commercial interest in the cases that it takes. Mr Hart told H&H that he also wanted to highlight that the charity’s good work “on the ground” was compromised by “an increasingly animal rights-based agenda being pursued by the RSPCA leadership”.