SHOT-SWITCH findings - 2025

Pledge to phase out toxic lead ammunition in UK hunting by 2025 has failed.

A voluntary pledge made by UK shooting organisations in 2020 to replace lead shot with non-toxic alternatives by 2025 has failed, analysis by SHOT-SWITCH finds.

The pledge, made in February 2020 by the UK’s nine leading game shooting and rural organisations, aimed to benefit wildlife and the environment and ensure a market for the healthiest game meat food products.

But in a final study, published today in the journal Conservation Evidence, the SHOT-SWITCH team concludes that the intended transition has failed. The team, combining ERI (University of the Highlands and Islands) and Cambridge University, has consistently shown that lead shot was not being phased out quickly enough to achieve a complete voluntary transition to non-toxic ammunition by 2025. .

In 2025, the study - called SHOT-SWITCH - found that of 171 pheasants found to contain shot, 99% had been killed with lead ammunition.

This year, for the first time, the team also analysed shotgun pellets found in red grouse carcasses shot in the 2024/25 shooting season and on sale through butchers’ shops and online retailers. In all 78 grouse carcasses from which any shot was recovered, the shot was lead.

The new research paper can be accessed here: SHOT-SWITCH Findings 2025