Written by Alex Keeble, Game and Wildlife Advisor (Central England)
The GWCT has always been an advocate for self-regulation within the game sector and supporting the various auditing schemes that have been offered to game shoots. The GWCT demonstration shoot at the Allerton Project has been a member of the British Game Assurance and the Aim to Sustain auditing schemes, which have been available over the last few years and strive to provide a net-biodiversity gain utilising sustainable gamebird releasing techniques.
Recently we have been involved in an alternative auditing scheme called Trusted Game, an audit-based scheme aimed to ensure the health and welfare of gamebirds on shoots and game farms. It was launched in 2022 and was developed by vets working closely with their gamekeeping and game farming clients. The audit process draws on proven systems from other industries and offers a practical route to achieving high standards, providing reassurance to the shoots, tenants, landowners and consumers.
Alex Keeble receiving his Trusted Game folder from Hannah Mouland
Trusted Game is intended to prevent the introduction of an unnecessary, complex, or costly external system, instead offering a fair and proportionate framework for self‑regulation. Given the existing close relationships between gamebird vets and their clients, the scheme is designed to be a simple, affordable add‑on to services already provided. Evidence‑led and flexible, Trusted Game recognises that there is no single approach suitable for all, reflecting the diversity of shoots and game‑related businesses.
To begin the auditing process we reached out to our vet (Poultry Health Services) to arrange an audit, and during March 2026 Hannah Mouland came out to our shoot to go through the standards and assess the shoot. We purchase our pheasant poults each year from Worcestershire Game Farm, so the game-rearing audit standards are not applicable to our setup, focusing on the shoot standards instead. The first stage of the audit was to discuss the standards and how we operate as a shoot; this includes biosecurity, flock health and welfare along with other sections. This part was carried out in the office, with suggestions made on potential improvements or changes to implement to help benefit the running of the shoot.
Keeping records is a key part of the audit checklist and best practice; we have a dedicated folder of shoot-related files, receipts and invoices, which we collate each year with details such as poult delivery tickets, feed invoices, medicine records, disposal invoices and a veterinary health plan. Receipts can be mislaid in Gators and trucks, but having a folder encourages you to find these and store them directly within the folder. We hold all of our information from each year within the folder so there is a history of past feed prescriptions and other vital information.
The second part of the audit process was to head out onto the shoot and look at the infrastructure, in our case consisting of pheasant release pens and overall habitats. We have actively been managing our demonstration shoot for 30 years to improve the overall habitats across the farm to aim for a biodiversity net gain via sustainable gamebird releasing. We utilise a mid-tier and SFI agreement to create a diverse range of habitats across the holding, to provide a habitat that can maintain our released pheasant poults and increase the habitat mosaic to benefit overall wildlife.
Within our release pens we conform to the GWCT sustainable releasing guidelines of 1,000 pheasant poults within a hectare of plantation woodland and reduce to 700 birds per hectare within sensitive woodland sites. The habitat within the release pens has been managed to create one third open areas, one third low ground cover, and one third roosting of various heights. The majority of the release pens are fed via mains water leading to a header tank, and there are enough feeders and drinkers to accommodate the numbers of birds released.
I have been involved directly with the previous audit schemes at our demonstration shoot, and the Trusted Game process was a straightforward yet detailed audit, focusing on best practice and sustainable gamebird releasing. Recently there has been a Gold, Silver, Bronze and member tier system and I am pleased to announce that we have achieved a Gold status. I would encourage everyone to look into Trusted Game as an auditing scheme and support the members who strive to maintain best practice across the sector.