The National Trust will stop issuing licences for trail hunts on its land, the charity’s board of trustees said.

Trail hunting is legal and sees dogs and riders follow an artificial scent along an agreed route. It differs from traditional fox hunts which are banned.

In 2020, the National Trust suspended trail licences after video emerged of a prominent huntsman advising how to use them for covert illegal fox hunts.

Following his conviction, trust members voted to ban trail hunts on its land.

Using dogs to chase or kill foxes was made illegal in England and Wales in the Hunting Act 2004. Many organisations instead turned to trail hunting which involves laying a scent for hounds to chase instead of a live animal.

In October, huntsman Mark Hankinson was ordered to pay £3,500 after Westminster Magistrates’ Court concluded he was “clearly encouraging the mirage of trail laying to act as cover for old fashioned illegal hunting”.

Harry Bowell, the National Trust’s director of land and nature, said there had been “a loss of trust and confidence in the Masters of Foxhounds Association” – where Hankinson was a director.

He said other reasons behind the decision included “the considerable resources needed to facilitate trail hunting, and the reputational risk of the activity continuing trust our land”.

The move to ban trail hunting applies to the trust’s land in England and Wales. No hunting is allowed on Northern Irish trust land.

Two councils have launched crackdowns on trail-hunting on their land, two weeks after landowners banned the activity in response to a criminal investigation into how it is organised.

The news comes as a third local authority is due to consider a motion suspending hunts from its land.

Councillors at Cheshire West and Chester Council on Thursday evening backed a motion that paves the way for a ban, voting to devise a new policy reflecting the “damage” caused by trail-hunting.  

The Food Standards Agency has suspended plans to warn pregnant women and young children about the health risks of eating game shot with lead ammunition, prompting confusion and dismay among campaigners.

The agency, which issues official guidance to consumers, had been expected to issue a statement on Wednesday warning vulnerable groups against eating game such as deer, grouse, pheasant and boar killed with lead shot.

It was also expected to advise other adults who regularly ate wild game shot with lead pellets to cut their consumption to avoid serious lead poisoning.

The lead ammunition group, the government’s advisory panel, decided on Tuesday to release the guidance, but that decision has been overturned. Sources close to the panel said no clear reason had been given.

The panel – which includes the UK’s main shooting and conservation bodies such as the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust (WWT), the British Association of Shooting and Conservation, and the Countryside Alliance – had been investigating the issue since its inception in 2009.

Debbie Pain, conservation director of WWT and an authority on lead shot in game birds, who has played a key role in formulating the advice to consumers, said: “They’ve now said they’re delaying publication but I don’t know what that means. Is it a week or a month? I have no idea at all.”