2021-12-31-accounts

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2021

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2021

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Contents

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Annual Report and Financial Statements 2021
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A message from the Chair, Dr Tim Holmes

Unfortunately, the Private Member’s Bill that resulted was sabotaged and fell short of legislation, but rest assured the League’s work there has not finished. It will not be until we help secure a robust ban.

I am writing this at the close of what has truly been an exceptional year for wildlife. Despite the constraints that we all have had to live with and work around, the gains we have collectively made towards giving persecuted animals a brighter future have been vast.

But we know the biggest win for animals has been the conviction of Mark Hankinson, former director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, for encouraging or assisting others to break the Hunting Act 2004. But it wasn’t just him on trial that day, it was the whole of hunting – and it was found guilty. No longer do landowners have confidence that hunters lay the trails they say they do. They stopped licensing hunts in droves, with most notably the National Trust and Wales’s largest landowner Natural Resources Wales banning them for good. No longer do the police welcome their voice on wildlife crime panels.

Firstly, we finally welcomed the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 onto the statute books. This important piece of legislation has taken years to get over the line, and it was only with a concerted effort of a coalition of animal welfare charities, with the League at the forefront, that the law was passed. It means, crucially, that maximum sentences for the worst abuses of animals now attract a custodial sentence of up to five years rather than the paltry six months they were before.

These victories that I am delighted to share with you in this report have each been extraordinary, but at every turn one thing was clear, we could not have achieved them without you, our incredibly generous supporters. Without you we simply could not do the work we need to do to ensure cruel sports are consigned to the past where they belong.

This doesn’t just protect pets; it protects those animals that are abducted and forced to be part of illegal dog fighting rings. It protects hunting hounds treated cruelly by those who claim to have animal welfare in their hearts. It protects the terriers they send into dens and setts.

I have been Chair of the Board for four years and it is now time for me to move on. At the commencement of my time with the League there were a number of challenges for the Board but these were overcome and the stability of the past couple of years has allowed the League to focus on the issues that matter: animal welfare, retention of highly skilled staff and financial management. There is much more to be done but I am confident that the formula is working for us to extend our reach and undertake even more.

In Wales we saw an assembly returned to the Senedd that pledged to ban snares. We will be holding them to that and asking them to add the barbaric caged breeding of ‘game’ birds to their list of cruelty to outlaw in the country.

In Northern Ireland we helped Stormont achieve what has been hailed as the largest consultation in its history, with a majority of residents there saying they’d back a ban on hunting with dogs.

...despite the constraints that we all have had to live with and work around, the gains we have collectively made towards giving persecuted animals a brighter future have been vast.

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2021

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A message from the CEO, Andy Knott MBE

for one tiny minority to claim it as their own, and in the process kill tens of millions of animals, be they hunted, shot, snared, poisoned, raced or made to fight.

2021 brought us so much, not only in terms of incredible wins for animals, but also in the lessons and experience that helped us achieve them. Amongst these is the importance of winning more hearts and minds, as well as presenting compelling arguments. We have been delighted to play such a public and leading role in shaping how we think about animals and the environment in this country.

More legislation and greater deterrence will be needed to protect our land and us, as well as animals, from the effects of cruel sports. As the country’s leading anti-hunt charity, we will seek to render the issue of hunting, one that is currently one of the most contentious of any in this country, to being no longer worthy of debate at the next General Election. Our investigative, educational, and campaigning work will ensure we achieve this.

Central to all of this is winning hearts and minds. Our arguments are compelling and our appeal and reach wider than ever. People really love what we do. However, that is not enough. More people are required to stand up and be counted if we are to rid this country of all cruel sports. Therefore, winning more hearts and minds will be our ‘main effort’ underpinning all we do next year.

Our strategy in 2022 will seek to bring about change more quickly and comprehensively than ever before. This is a pressing imperative for animals and humans alike, the well-being of each is often intertwined.

These issues include enabling activities that allow cruel sports to take place. We have been focusing on land denial for some years, with the recent announcement by the National Trust to stop hunting on their land perhaps our most significant success. Now the argument that cruel sports are a necessary way of country life is one that needs challenging more comprehensively, particularly as many of the jobs it brings are low paid, with poor conditions, and better alternatives exist.

2021 was brought to you by a dedicated and experienced Board and Staff, all of whom rely on our amazing supporters to provide them the firm foundations necessary to work well. As always, it is a close-knit team effort. Heading up all of this is our Chair, Dr Tim Holmes, who will hand over to his successor later in the year. I salute him for his outstanding service to the League, and for the countless animals now safe from persecution as a result. Thank you.

Cruel sports impact the public in other ways too. Destroying or polluting the environment or introducing children to violent practices dressed up as being ‘sporting’, risks the mental and physical wellbeing of all of us. The countryside and the wildlife that inhabits it forms part of our collective, national heritage and we should all be able to enjoy it. It is not

...central to all of this is winning hearts and minds. Our arguments are compelling and our appeal and reach wider than ever. People really love what we do. However, that is not enough. More people are required to stand up and be counted if we are to rid this country of all cruel sports.

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Our Focus

Our Strategic Approach

Our Vision

Our Mission

Empowered by knowledge and driven by compassion, we protect animals from being persecuted in the name of ‘sport’.

A kinder society where persecuting animals for ‘sport’ is in the past.

United, we aim to redefine what is acceptable and inspire change.

Our Working Priorities

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End
hunting
with dogs
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End
of
fighting
animals for
‘sport’
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End
shooting of
animals for
‘sport’
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Win the hearts
and minds
of a broader
audience
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Our Enablers

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Infrastructure Reserves &
& Support Education
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People & Culture

Governance Operations

Our Values

We are Compassionate

We are ethical and committed to creating a world that is caring towards animals and people.

We are Credible

We are law abiding, rely on evidence and have years of expertise.

We are Courageous

We have the confidence to challenge those who believe in killing animals for ‘sport’.

We are Collaborative

We unite with others through honesty to achieve a common goal.

We are Catalysts for Change

We create opportunities to make change happen.

Annual Report and Financial Statements 2021

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2021 Our Successes

January

Land Denial

Our Land Denial campaign ensured more than 2.3 million acres of land were denied to hunts. The UK’s largest landowners, including the National Trust, United Utilities, Forestry England, Lake District National Parks and Natural Resources Wales suspended hunting licences following our campaign, which saw the public contacting them to ask that hunts be banned from using their land.

Northern Ireland

We helped bring a Private Members’ Bill that, if successful, would see hunting with dogs banned in Northern Ireland. John Blair (MLA) put forward the bill that would prohibit hunting wild animals with dogs, prohibit ‘trail’ hunting and prohibit terrier work. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where hunting with dogs is still legal.

February

We took to the streets of Peterborough calling for the Festival of Hunting to be cancelled.

A new League supporter group, covering Cambridgeshire, was created by residents who were unhappy about blood sport events taking place in their county. Peterborough City Council took the landmark decision to ban trail hunting on its land and was the first council to do so after hunt officials were heard in two webinars appearing to describe trail hunting as a “smokescreen” for real hunting.

Sadly, the vote to cancel the festival lost by a narrow margin but we plan to take our new ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign to Peterborough in 2022 to encourage local residents to strengthen the calls for the event to be banned from the city.

Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, a public consultation on the future of hunting with dogs carried out by the Alliance party and supported by us, achieved overwhelming support for a ban on hunting with dogs.

In what is believed to have been the largest consultation in Stormont’s history, 18,425 residents responded, with more than 80 per cent in favour of the proposals.

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March

We launched an action targeting online auction houses to drop their support for hunting from their websites after the Devon-based Eggesford Hunt raised more than £13,000 from an online auction. These auction sites have helped fox hunts raise hundreds of thousands of pounds across the country and overseas. Our CEO Andy Knott also wrote to many different sites politely inviting them to end all associations with hunting and to end all hunt auctions.

As a result of the action, our supporters leapt into action and sent more than 2,600 emails to one auction site alone asking the company to stop funding hunts.

Many of the online auction sites have now gone on record to state they would not host an auction for a fox hunt. One site, in particular, went so far as to state on its website that auctions that sell assault weapons and adult content, and those raising money for fox hunts were not welcome. Past and present users of auction sites have informed us that they have moved their business to sites that publicly declare their opposition to funding hunting.

April

A host of celebrity naturalists joined us in our campaign to see snaring and caged ‘game’ bird breeding outlawed in Wales.

We called on every party in May’s Senedd elections to make a manifesto commitment to ban these cruel practices, which are associated with the ‘game’ shooting industry in Wales.

The campaign was backed by Lizzie Daly, Megan McCubbin, Indy Greene, Mya-Rose Craig (BirdGirl), David Lindo and Hannah Stitfall. On our Bred to Die website, they explained more about the shooting industry and why snaring and caged breeding should be banned.

On 29 April, the long-awaited Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act gained Royal Ascent, increasing custodial sentences for the most serious animal cruelty from six months to five years. The League and RSPCA jointly formed and led the coalition of eleven Charites that campaigned for this piece of legislation. The League CEO was singled out in parliament for the leading role he played throughout.

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May

On 6 May, Welsh Labour gained a clear win at the polls with exactly half of the seats in the 60-seat Welsh Parliament. We were delighted to see its manifesto commitment to ban the manufacture, sale, possession, and use of snares and for a ban on the use of cages for the breeding of ‘game’ birds.

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The Conductor by Joanne Goostrey
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The Scottish parliament voted to extend legal protection of mountain hares and ban mass killing of the species. Evidence of the destructive nature of the mass culling of these creatures, gathered by our professional investigators in early 2019, was decisive in securing this legislation. On 17 June, MSPs voted to give the species year-round protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act and prevent the killing or injuring of mountain hares unless a specific licence is issued.

We welcomed the official start of the process for a Government bill to really ban fox hunting in Scotland. This came about after six years of League campaigning, including filming hunts, extensive media coverage, supporter mobilisation and lobbying Government until they agreed that the law needed strengthening.

June

July/August

On 13 July, Lord Randall of Uxbridge tabled a Private Members’ Bill to prohibit the use of raised laying or battery cages to keep certain ‘game’ birds for producing eggs and to set minimum requirements for such enclosures. This bill, supported by the League, will make the large-scale of caged bird breeding in the UK commercially unviable.

Over the summer, we took to the streets with our supporters to call on the National Trust to stop licensing ‘trail’ hunting on its land. To its credit, the National Trust paused the licensing of trail hunting after the webinar exposure of former director of the Masters of Foxhounds, Mark Hankinson, but our campaign called for the ban to be made permanent.

We ended the campaign with a day of action in York ahead of the National Trust’s AGM in Harrogate in October, when a vote would give members the chance to call for a permanent ban on the licensing of trail hunting.

We released our annual figures showing the appalling scale of fox cub hunting taking place in the countryside this autumn. Sadly, between the middle of August and the end of October, there were 300 reported incidents of suspected illegal fox cub hunting across England and Wales. These include 15 eye-witness reports of foxes being chased and killed, despite the fox hunting ban.

September

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October

‘Trail’ hunting is a “smokescreen”

It’s taken more than 15 years but finally a judge ruled that fox hunters have been riding roughshod over the law – and enough is enough! We celebrated outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court as the conviction of Mark Hankinson, director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, was read out.

Following a formal complaint made by the League in 2020, Hankinson was found guilty of intentionally encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence under Serious Crimes Act 2007 by telling them how to use the excuse of so called ‘trail’ hunting to get away with hunting real animals.

His Honour, Deputy Chief Magistrate for England and Wales, Tan Ikram, read out key parts of the webinar transcripts in his remarks, before saying “In my judgement he was clearly encouraging the mirage of trail laying to act as a cover for old fashioned hunting”. He described trail hunting as “a sham and a fiction”.

National Trust

We celebrated the decision outside the National Trust AGM in Harrogate as members voted to ban trail hunting on its land. As one of the UK’s largest landowners who owns or is responsible for managing 620,000 acres of land, the banning of trail hunting will make it that much more difficult for hunters to continue their thirst for blood sports. The motion to ban trail hunting gained 76,816 members’ votes, a majority of 38,632 over the 38,184 who voted against – a near two to one vote in support of a ban and represented a crushing defeat for the Countryside Alliance who had argued against our motion right up to the final votes being cast.

November

We cautiously welcomed the news that the National Trust Trustees honoured the members’ wishes to ban trail hunting with the official ending of licensing of so-called trail hunting on its land. We are, however, concerned that without a full and explicit ban, fox hunting could still take place.

Northern Ireland

An historic opportunity to ban hunting with dogs in Northern Ireland sadly failed at the second stage. The Northern Ireland Assembly voted against the Private Members’ Bill to ban hunting with wild dogs, by 38 for and 45 against. It was a devastating day for animals in Northern Ireland, as it’s the only part of the UK not to have legislation in place to ban hunting with dogs. We are not defeated and are planning our next move!

Natural Resources Wales

We celebrated Natural Resources Wales/Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru permanently ending trail hunting on its land. The organisation is one of the largest landowners in Wales and suspended trail hunting after the damning webinars were leaked. It is a robust condemnation of the hunts in the wake of the recent conviction. We hope that other major landowners that had also suspended so-called trail hunting ahead of the trial must now be in the process of ending this activity for good.

December

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How funds were raised and spent in 2021

Income

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Legacies: 53%
Donations & Gifts: 36%
Membership: 3%
Other Income: 8%
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Total Income: £3,095,599
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How we spend every £
Charitable Objectives: 87p
Fundraising: 12p
Governance: 1p
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Expenditure

End Hunting with dogs: 38%
End Shooting of animals for sport:13%
End Fighting of animals for sport:3%
Win Hearts and Minds: 33%
Fundraising, Publicity & Trading:12%
Governance: 1%

Total Expenditure: £3,143,432

Historic Financial Performance & Reserves £000

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7,0000
Income Expenditure Reserves
6,0000
5,0000
4,0000
3,0000
2,0000
1,0000
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
2015 included an exceptional legacy
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2021 Priorities and Achievements

End hunting with dogs

Secure a permanent end to ‘trail’ hunting on National Trust land

In November 2021, following a long campaign, we cautiously welcomed the National Trust officially ending the licensing of so-called ‘trail’ hunting on its land. In a landslide vote at the trust’s annual meeting in October, its members said enough is enough and voted overwhelmingly to ask the trustees to ban trail hunting and hound exercise, which is routinely used as a smokescreen for old fashioned illegal hunting. However, we are still unclear whether it has prohibited exempt hunting activities – those activities that exploit loopholes in the law which could still potentially lead to animals being chased and killed. This was also voted by the membership to be banned and we continue to ask that the National Trust clarifies its position. This is an overwhelming victory for wildlife in our countryside, as the National Trust is one of the UK’s major landowners.

Secure a permanent end to ‘trail’ hunting on major landowner’s land

Natural Resources Wales/Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru ended trail hunting on its land at the end of 2021. The organisation is one of the largest landowners in Wales and had suspended trail hunting after damning webinars were leaked in which a director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association was heard explaining to more than half the registered hunts in England and Wales how to use the activity as a “smokescreen” for real hunting.

Facilitate local authorities to end hunting on their land

One of the North West’s largest fox hunts was prevented from meeting in Keswick town centre on Boxing Day or any other time, as Keswick Town Council voted to write to the Blencathra Foxhounds – also known as the John Peel Hunt – explaining they were no longer welcome in the town.

Councillors at Cheshire West and Chester Council also voted to pause trail hunting on its land while it prepares for the publication of a report into the practice. We, along with other local hunt monitor groups, provided data to the council for its report, and following its publication the practice was banned.

Malvern Hills Trust banned trail hunting on its land after concerns were raised about the behaviour of two local fox hunts. Its trustees voted to suspend trail hunting licences for its land indefinitely following a series of infringements by the Ledbury Hunt and the Croome and West Warwickshire Hunt.

Councillors in Bolsover also voted to conduct an urgent county-wide and national debate on the issue of trail hunting.

In 2020 Peterborough City Council and in 2019 Nottinghamshire County Council also voted to ban hunting on their land.

‘...Malvern Hills Trust banned trail hunting on its land after concerns were raised about the behaviour of two local fox hunts. Its trustees voted to suspend trail hunting licences for its land indefinitely.’

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Create an environment in Northern Ireland where all hunting of mammals with dogs is banned by supporting the Alliance Party’s Private Members’ Bill to pass into law

At the start of the year the Northern Ireland Assembly began the landmark process to ban hunting wild mammals with dogs.

The League was instrumental in gathering support for a Northern Ireland wide public consultation on whether a bill should be introduced to ban hunting with hounds. A staggering 18,425 people responded, which is thought to be by far the largest response to a consultation in the history of the Northern Ireland Assembly, with 78 per cent saying all hunting with dogs should be banned.

Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), John Blair, brought the Hunting of Wild Mammals (Northern Ireland) Bill to its first hearing at Stormont, giving MLAs an historic opportunity to end the cruelty of hunting.

Sadly, in November they voted against the bill. Members voted 38 for, and 45 against. While this is bitterly disappointing, we are encouraged that in January 2021, Belfast City Council supported a ban for hunting mammals with dogs despite strong opposition from Sinn Fein. Following the council debate, 34 councillors backed the Alliance proposal to write to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) expressing disappointment at the lack of legislative progress in “ending this barbaric practice” – with 18 opposing the motion.

Ensure the Scottish Government’s bill to strengthen the fox hunting ban becomes an Act of Parliament that really bans fox hunting in Scotland

To combat this, we launched our petition to really ban fox hunting and empower the people of Scotland to have their say on the matter. So, combined with the hours of video evidence captured by League’s professional Investigators, we created a film revealing that illegal hunting is still taking place. Bringing the notion that fox hunting is still happening in Scotland, the film focuses on one lone fox hunter in full regalia who calmly rides through the city of Edinburgh to the Holyrood parliament building. When he gets there, he smiles into the camera and turns to reveal an embroidered message on the back of his red coat that says, ‘I’m still allowed to hunt foxes’. It’s a statement no Government can ignore.

We launched our film across social media platforms, targeting Scottish residents and gained 26,809 signatures to really ban fox hunting in Scotland. We met government officials at the end of the year, who confirmed the new bill would be introduced in early 2022. We will follow the progress of the bill throughout 2022, calling on our supporters to lobby their Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) at an appropriate time and continue to use the media to expose suspicious and illegal behaviour captured on film in the field.

Lobby and secure a national police working group on hunting with dogs

We are pleased to report that this has been achieved. A new national police working group on hunting with dogs was launched at the 2021 National Wildlife Enforcers Conference, with the League in attendance. The working group launched in January 2022.

We know that more than 80 per cent of Scotland’s residents wish to see fox hunting really banned. But we also acknowledge there is a chance the public would not notice the Government’s bill to strengthen the existing loophole-riddled law.

‘...we launched our film across social media platforms, targeting Scottish residents and gained 26,809 signatures to really ban fox hunting in Scotland.’

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2021 Priorities and Achievements

End shooting of animals for ‘sport’

End the transport of live birds and ready-tohatch eggs into and out of the UK, focusing on EuroTunnel and Stena

Due to Covid-19 this activity was postponed

Release shooting report for England and Wales

Due to Covid-19 this activity was postponed. Our professional Investigators did, however, secure footage of both commercial shoots and the caged bird breeding industry. This included drone footage of Bettws Hall, Europe’s biggest game bird hatchery, which according to its website, produces 800,000 game bird eggs each week. This was turned into a film to promote our work to end caged breeding and snaring in Wales.

Secure manifesto commitments to end cage breeding and the sale of snares in Wales by the time the Assembly elections happen in May 2021

We achieved both priorities, and the detail has moved even further from the manifesto commitments. The manifesto reads: “we will ban the use of snares and restrict the use of cages for farmed animals.” To read the Welsh Labour Manifesto click HERE .

Since the publication of the manifesto, these commitments have developed even further to read, “As part of our commitment to improving standards of farmed animal welfare we are working with the UK and Scottish governments to examine the evidence around the use of cages in farming, including enriched cages for laying hens, farrowing crates for pigs and breeding cages for gamebirds.” To read the full document click HERE .

This extension to explicitly include game birds was repeated in a letter to organisations including the Countryside Alliance and British Association for Shooting and Conservation – that letter also explicitly said the Welsh Government is opposed to game shooting as a leisure activity.

Commitment from Yorkshire Water to review all leases by August 2021

In 2021 the League kept in regular contact with both Yorkshire Water and the grouse moor restoration organisation Wild Moors. Following the commitment to review its grouse shooting leases, Yorkshire Water has developed a robust mechanism to analyse and measure the benefits and weaknesses of allowing shooting to continue. At the end of 2021, the League has been shown a draft of this process and has been invited to give feedback to make sure the process is as robust as possible. We expect the review process to be finalised and implemented in 2022.

“...we will ban the use of snares and restrict the use of cages for farmed animals.”

Taken from the Welsh Labour Manifesto

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Work with the REVIVE coalition to end the circle of destruction surrounding Scottish Grouse Moors

The League is a founding member of the Revive coalition, which in 2021 further built on three years of successful momentum since its formation. Last year the Revive national conference was attended by around 400 people who came to find out what they can do to help bring about radically reforming grouse moors.

We continued working with an MSP on a Member’s Bill that would place responsibility on Scottish Government ministers to ensure that no wild animal is killed without reference to the internationally agreed seven principles of ethical wildlife control.

Secure ban of snaring in Scotland

The Scottish Government announced a review of snaring that will also consider banning their use. We will closely follow developments in 2022 and utilise existing data, videos and photographs that clearly illustrate snares are primitive, cruel and indiscriminate.

Virtual and physical outreach to local political and community groups

Last year we formed two new supporter groups, bringing our total to 15 active groups across England and Wales, and delivered nine bespoke training sessions to these groups.

During the National Trust campaign, we answered more than 1,000 specific information requests from National Trust members, questioning the position of trail hunting on trust land and the details of our campaign.

Of these supporters, 210 went on to not only take part in the campaign but volunteered to help us raise awareness at their local National Trust properties by distributing campaign materials - including volunteers who also managed to doorstep the National Trust’s Director-General!

‘...the Scottish Government announced a review of snaring that will also consider banning their use. We will closely follow developments in 2022.’

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2021 Priorities and Achievements

End of fighting animals for ‘sport’

Ensure the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill passes into law in 2021

In April 2021, the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill gained royal assent and was passed into law in June, meaning those committing the most heinous acts of violence against animals face a punishment more suited to their crimes.

We have been campaigning for many years to see maximum sentences increased from a paltry six months to five years. The League and RSPCA jointly formed and led the coalition of eleven charities that campaigned for this bill with the League CEO credited in Parliament for the leading role he played throughout.

Produce packages for external contractors to develop our intelligence on more complex animal fighting investigations

We have provided a number of intelligence packages and footage to police and law enforcement agencies, including one that led to a warrant being executed by North Wales Police, Natural Resources Wales, the RSPCA and Trading Standards. This case is still under investigation by the relevant authorities, and we are awaiting an update as to how this matter is proceeding within the criminal justice system.

Secure a dog fighting prosecution

Sadly, though intelligence suggested dog fighting continued during the pandemic, no dog fighting convictions were secured during 2021.

‘...we have been campaigning for many years to see maximum sentences increased from a paltry six months to five years.”

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Win the hearts
and minds
of a broader
audience
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Launch League Against Cruel Sports pledge

We began the process of launching the new corporate pledge in 2019, but its official launch was postponed due to Covid-19 in early 2020. We will begin this project again in earnest in 2022.

Regular communications with our supporters and stakeholders on campaign progress

At the start of lockdown in 2020, we launched League Life, a monthly email broadcast with updates, actions and progress on campaigns. We continued broadcasting these each month to our supporters, and achieved a high level of engagement from supporters. Our professional Investigators wrote detailed blogs for supporters providing insight and commentary on our latest campaigns.

Develop opportunities for partnership working to reduce animal cruelty and wildlife crime

Our work with Wildlife and Countryside LINK has greatly expanded our partnership working. Our multi-agency approach has also seen us work with more police and law enforcement agencies this year too. We also sit on the National Badger Persecution Priority Delivery Group and the National Cyber-Crime Priority Delivery Group. We also head up the Animal Intelligence Meeting which we reinstated in 2020.

We are part of a 50-strong animal welfare coalition urging the Government not to waste a ‘once-in-ageneration opportunity’ to redefine our relationship with animals through a new animal health and welfare strategy. The group released a new vision for animal welfare called Act Now For Animals, which sets out the sector’s priorities for creating a society which rebalances the way we rear, live and work with animals. Included in the recommendations is banning the sale and use of all glue traps and snares, banning the intensive breeding of ‘game’ birds, banning trail hunting on government-

owned land and phasing out the mass culling of badgers. Increase our reach through a diversified programme

of fundraising activities

Last year we introduced new products to our Gifts Against Cruel Sports merchandise collection, including new T-shirts and a bespoke mindfulness colouring and activity book. We captured images of the wildlife living on our wildlife reserves to create eye-catching Christmas cards. We re-launched our League Lotto, increasing our player base by seven per cent. In the autumn we launched our new sports and challenges programme and 21 people took part in personal challenges while raising money for the League.

Increase the number of supporters donating regularly to the League

In 2021 we continued our digital acquisition campaign to recruit new long-term regular supporters to the League. More than 7.8 million people had the opportunity to see our campaign on social channels and we successfully recruited over 800 new regular donors.

Launch the League of Animals education platform to Primary and Secondary schools across the UK

We were very proud to launch our new League of Animals free online educational resource in August 2021, with new Facebook and Instagram accounts. A targeted social media campaign reached 800,000 educational professionals and we established nearly 1,000 new followers on our League of Animals channels. Since launch, we have received more than 20,000 visitors to the site, with nearly 3,500 worksheets downloaded for students in Key Stage 1, 2 and 3. It is hoped this new resource will engender a greater awareness in our younger generation about the natural world around them and the wildlife with which we share our world.

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2022 Priorities

End hunting with dogs

• Develop stakeholder and partnership relationships

• Launch the nationwide panel debate Enough is Enough roadshows with leading figures from the animal welfare movement, politicians, and representatives from the enforcement community

• Campaign for the successful implementation of a new fox hunting act that really bans fox hunting in both Scotland and Northern Ireland

• Produce enhanced intelligence packages to provide to law enforcement groups and other non-governmental organisations

• • Support the new national police working group on hunting with dogs

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End
of
fighting
animals for
‘sport’
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End shooting of animals for ‘sport’

• Work with the Welsh Government to implement manifesto commitments on snaring and game bird breeding

• Manage and enhance the supporterfunded Animal Crimewatch reporting service to enable more members of the public to be aware of the service to report suspected dog fighting.

• With the REVIVE coalition, work with the Scottish Government towards a licensing system of shooting estates to reduce the possibility of grouse shooting

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Win the hearts
and minds
of a broader
audience
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• Launch the League’s corporate pledge
• Develop our Supporter Group network
across the UK
• Increase the number of supporters
donating regularly
• Focus on creating engaging supporter
content to share across social media to
raise our collective voices
•
Work with key influencers to help raise
awareness of our campaigns
• Continue working with Wildlife and
Countryside LINK to improve the wider
conservation efforts across the country
• Develop the wildlife reserves to encourage
a more diverse group of visitors
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Trustees’ Strategic Report

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Goal One

End hunting with dogs

It’s taken more than 15 years but finally a judge has ruled that fox hunters have been riding roughshod over the law – and enough is enough!

In 2020 we ended the year with explosive revelations from leaked webinars organised by the Hunting Office, where once and for all the lid was blown off the Countryside Alliance’s now debunked claims that ‘trail’ hunting is a legal activity.

We had been in constant discussion with Rupert Evelyn from the ITV News as he, along with others, had been aware of the webinar’s existence. Together we worked on a plan to try and get them released nationally.

The League made a formal complaint to Devon and Cornwall Police, which prompted an investigation leading to the webinars to be published.

Once it was released, we amplified our campaign urging landowners across the country to suspend access to the hunts. We were amazed at how quickly the landowners acted – within a week more than 200,000 emails were sent by our supporters asking them to ban trail hunting on their land.

In February 2021 we finally heard that Mark Hankinson,

one of the six people who spoke on the webinars, had been charged with intentionally encouraging or assisting others to commit an offence under the Hunting Act 2004, contrary to Section 44 of the Serious Crimes Act 2007.

Hankinson pleaded not guilty at a hearing at Plymouth Magistrates’ Court in March, and the case was referred to Westminster Magistrates Court in London for September. It’s a court more used to dealing with extradition or terrorism cases or high-profile cases that other magistrates’ courts in the UK won’t deal with.

We worked to make parliament and those in highest levels of the government aware of the webinars and we also wrote about it in the government publication for parliamentarians, House Magazine.

Our planning for the court case began weeks in advance, completing pre-recorded interviews, crafting our messaging, and planning our ‘smokescreen’ stunt outside the first day of court, reflecting one of the key phrases used in the webinars. We also took the message to the heart of hunting community by placing advertising vans at addresses relating to the key people on the webinars.

On 15 October we reassembled at Westminster Magistrates Court, as the decision was now in the hands of Deputy Chief Magistrate for England and Wales, Judge Tan Ikram, to decide whether Mark Hankinson was guilty or not guilty.

It is hard to describe the magnitude of what would happen if the verdict was guilty. But as the judge started reading, we began to raise our hopes. A lot of quotes were taken directly from webinars and the judge dealt blow after blow after blow to the defendant. Until finally…he was found guilty. You can read the news article HERE.

While the £1,000 fine, £2,500 contribution to costs and £100 victim surcharge he had to pay is paltry, the wider implications are more far reaching:

The cost to the hunts must be that they can surely never, ever use the defence of trail hunting in court again.

The cost to the hunts must be a new, robust, Hunting Act 2004 being passed through parliament.

The cost to the hunts must be that the land they have been able to hunt on belonging to major landowners will be permanently denied to them.

The cost to the hunts must be that those who fundraise and sponsor them will now have to stop.

The cost to the hunts must be that those who insure them will now never pay out if a hunt uses an excuse of trail hunting when in court.

Because all those who have enabled the hunts in the past, will now be complicit in criminal activity if they enable trail hunting in the future.

The smoke screen has been lifted. With the continued support and determination of our supporters - not to mention all the anti-hunt organisations involved in obtaining and distributing the webinars - behind it should be a bright future for foxes.

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A monumental victory for animals

This year we achieved our most significant victory in years, as our campaign to end ‘trail’ hunting on National Trust land came to an end.

National Trust issue trail hunting licences, in which hunts are supposed to follow pre-laid scents rather than real foxes. But if trail hunting is real, why are foxes still being killed by hounds? Why do they run amok on busy roads and railways?

We began the most recent phase of our campaign in 2020, calling on our supporters who are also National Trust members, to pledge their support for a motion to ban trail hunting at the organisation’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). Our supporters’ response was incredible, and the motion was accepted, meaning it would be debated by its membership and ultimately put to a vote. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 the AGM was postponed, but the motion carried over to 2021. Together with our supporters, our work was not wasted. Additionally, the pandemic may have changed the world, but our donors support throughout these turbulent times has meant our work could continue unabated.

Once restrictions began to ease last year we began our campaign. We held Covid-safe roadshows in 22 towns and cities across the UK, supported other events organised by our supporters, ran online and print advertising as well as using street billboards and ad vans to carry our message.

On 30 October, National Trust members attended the AGM in Harrogate. It was the largest voting turnout in its history and our staff and supporters were there to celebrate the result. The motion to ban trail hunting gained 76,816 members’ votes, a majority of nearly two to one over the 38,184 who voted against.

In December the National Trust Trustees ended the official licensing of so-called trail hunting. We cautiously welcome their decision to act upon the wishes of their members, but we are concerned it still doesn’t go far enough. It’s still unclear whether it has prohibited exempt hunting activities, where hunts use loopholes in the law that could potentially lead to animals being chased and killed.

Trail hunting land. Denied.

Following the explosive revelations of the leaked webinars from the Hunting Office, we amplified our land denial campaign. In 2021 we ensured more than 2.3 million acres of land were denied to hunts. The UK’s largest landowners, including the National Trust, United Utilities, Forestry England, Lake District National Parks and Natural Resources Wales suspended hunting licences following our campaign, which urged the public to contact them to ask they ban hunts from using their land.

Our supporters sent more than 400,000 emails to the top landowners in the country over a 12-month period, keeping up the pressure until the trial of Mark Hankinson and beyond. Subsequently, circa one million acres of land, including the largest landowners in England and Wales (National Trust and Natural Resources Wales), permanently ended the licensing of trail hunting in December 2021.

We placed less focus on targeting councils last year, but we did manage to successfully ban hunting on Cheshire West and Cheshire land, a significant hotspot for hunting. Other councils have also taken up the call and have clearly seen and learnt from our campaign. We expect more councils to follow suit in 2022 and ban trail hunting on their land.

‘...our supporters sent more than 400,000 emails to the top landowners in the country over a 12-month period.’

Our campaign to end trail hunting on National Trust is a huge landmark win for our wildlife.

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We sprang into action and launched our campaign asking Scottish residents to lend their support to our calls to Really Ban Fox Hunting in Scotland. At the end of the year, we met with government officials who confirmed the new bill would be introduced in early 2022. You can watch our film HERE .

Let’s Really Ban Fox Hunting in Scotland

We all thought fox hunting was banned in Scotland, but our courageous fieldworkers exposed that this is not the case. Right now, hunts continue to exploit loopholes in the law.

In December our professional fieldworkers secured footage showing a fox fed to dogs after being legally flushed out, along with another film showing a man tossing a fox to dogs and encouraging them to rip it apart in Howwood, Renfrewshire. The cruelty involved in fox hunting is alive and well, despite the law banning dogs from hunting down the animals in the traditional way in Scotland. Now is the time to Really Ban Fox Hunting in Scotland.

In May 2021, following the delay of the fox hunting ban due to Covid-19, at the end of last year the Scottish Government officially kicked off the process of strengthening the fox hunting ban by releasing a six-week consultation on two main elements of their proposed legislation – reducing the numbers of dogs to two and stopping trail hunting from being introduced into Scotland.

With the aid of our filmed evidence and with 87 per cent of the Scottish public thinking that fox hunting should be illegal, parliament began the process of strengthening the law by saying they wish to listen to the public about what they think should happen.

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Society for the Prevention Cruelty to Animals, and other interested groups and the Police Service of Northern Ireland with a view to support our campaign.

Northern Ireland misses its chance to be at the forefront of animal welfare in the UK

At the start of the year, we helped bring a Private Members’ Bill that, if successful, would see hunting with dogs banned in Northern Ireland. We supported Alliance Party Member John Blair MLA, who put forward the bill that would prohibit hunting wild animals with dogs, prohibit trail hunting and prohibit terrier work. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where hunting with dogs is still legal. Fox hunting is a controversial subject, polarising opinion in the country.

Our work saw us calling on the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure the wording of the bill made it a robust piece of legislation, closing the loopholes that allow hunts to get away with killing wild mammals in Scotland, England and Wales, despite bans already being in place there.

In November the Northern Ireland Assembly started its landmark process with its first hearing at Stormont giving MLAs an historic opportunity to end the cruelty of hunting. Whilst it is to be celebrated that the bill was put before Stormont, sadly it was narrowly defeated and stopped during its passage through to becoming law. So the scene is set for this to be a key issue going into the May assembly elections this year.

The Government launched a consultation, supported and promoted by the League, and a staggering 18,425 people responded, which is thought to be the largest response to a consultation in the history of the Northern Ireland Assembly, with 78 per cent saying all hunting with dogs should be banned.

The consultation finally gave voters the opportunity to make their voice clearly heard on the issue of hunting live mammals with dogs. We met with Ulster

Festival of Hunting – a cause for celebration?

In July we welcomed a cross-party motion by councillors calling on the council to recognise that Peterborough is no longer an appropriate city to host the event. Sadly, councillors voted in favour of the event.

In February 2021 we launched our Festival of Hunting campaign, by taking to the streets of Peterborough calling for the festival to be cancelled.

Along with League staff and volunteers, residents gathered outside Peterborough Cathedral to campaign for the event, which promotes the world of hunting with hounds, to be cancelled. The Festival of Hunting takes place in July and attracts 5,000 spectators. Local residents were so appalled about the event taking place in their city that we established a new Supporter Group covering Cambridgeshire.

While this is bitterly disappointing, we have established a new supporter network in a location where we had previously little formal structure, in a very short space of time. We implemented a thorough training programme, mobilised activists to establish a new foothold in Cambridgeshire and have trialled a new supporter model which we shall roll out to other areas in 2022.

Holding the festival in this city is an unusual location, as Peterborough City Council was one of the first councils to take the landmark decision to ban socalled trail hunting on its land.

‘...local residents were so appalled about the event taking place in their city that we established a new Supporter Group covering Cambridgeshire. ’

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Map of Cruel Sports

In 2020 we launched an interactive map as part of our campaign to show the territory of the hunts still operating across the British countryside and the species they target – foxes, hares or deer.

Last year we developed the map to include mink hunting. Our prior knowledge had been sparse, but through our long-running investigations we identified how many mink hunts still exist and the locations of where they meet. This clandestine form of hunting is very rarely seen unless you are a member of a hunt or know the signs to look out for. Our work, which is now available on the Map of Cruel Sports, has been praised by the International Otter Society, which was horrified at the number of hunts still operating. It has now used our online infographic to show its followers how otter conservation and mink hunting are closely linked. In 2022 we will use drones to cover several mink hunts still operating.

keeping of dogs has been breached. If found guilty, he could be sentenced up to a maximum of five years in prison, following the introduction of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, which we were instrumental in securing.

Police training and liaison

Last year we continued to share our expertise in the Hunting Act 2004 by training police forces and those involved with the criminal judicial system. We supported police forces throughout the UK, including Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall, Kent, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, West Mercia and Ministry of Defence Police during their investigations into allegations of illegal hunting. We also worked with the Officer in Charge in the Hunting Act with regards to the prosecution of Mark Hankinson.

Cubbing – a traditional autumn sport?

Our 2020 figures showed the appalling scale of fox cub hunting taking place in the countryside over the autumn, despite the continuing pandemic. Between the middle of August and the end of October, there were 300 reported incidents of suspected illegal fox hunting across England and Wales.

One of our main priorities last year was to lobby and secure a national police working group on hunting with dogs, which we are pleased to report was established and announced at the National Wildlife Enforcers Conference. The working group, involving the League, had its first meeting in January 2022.

These include 15 eye-witness reports of foxes being chased and killed, despite the fox hunting ban. The suspected illegal hunting took place in 56 different counties and involved 108 different hunts – showing the sheer scale of this across the UK.

A brighter future

Gloucestershire had the highest number of suspected illegal hunting incidents with 43 cases in less than a three-month period. The Duke of Beaufort’s Hunt topped the hall of shame across England and Wales with the highest number of suspected illegal incidents with 21 cases. Our professional Investigators filmed hounds from the hunt chasing a fox through a barbed wire fence on Hawkesbury Common in Gloucestershire.

Last year joint work by our investigations and intelligence teams led to 34 dogs and two ferrets being rescued from a farm in North Wales, and a man arrested by local police.

Among the dogs rescued was an entire pack of hunting hounds, which we believe is the first time this has happened in the UK. The investigation by North Wales Police will focus on the condition of the animals and whether a court order preventing

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Goal Two
End shooting
of animals
for sport
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A new era for ‘game’ birds in Wales?

In January we launched our new polling, carried out by YouGov, showing the overwhelming majority of the Welsh public want both snares and the caged breeding of ‘game’ birds banned.

It showed that 78 per cent of the Welsh public wanted snares to be made illegal and 72 per cent said cages to breed pheasants and partridges should be made illegal. Support for the bans came from across the political spectrum showing a majority in favour from Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru voters.

We launched our campaign that called on all the main political parties to back a ban on snares and caged breeding of game birds and to include it in their manifestos for the forthcoming Senedd elections. You can watch the campaign film HERE .

A host of celebrity naturalists joined our calls to see snaring and caged ‘game’ bird breeding outlawed in Wales. The creation of www.bredtodie.co.uk answered questions from the public to overcome the obstacles presented by the pandemic, as we were unable to deliver face to face campaigning events.

We secured funding to launch our Silent Enemy film, showing the horrors of snaring and the impact it has on indiscriminate animals. Up to 50,000 snares are laid at any one time in Wales according to UK government research on the issue. You can watch the Silent Enemy film HERE .

Our professional Investigators secured drone footage of Bettws Hall, Europe’s biggest game bird hatchery, which according to its website produces 800,000 game bird eggs each week, to show the sheer scale of the operation. Our campaign film urged members of the Welsh government to take action. You can watch the campaign film HERE .

The campaign was a success and gained a commitment from the Labour party in Wales which was re-elected at the ballot box, to end snaring and undertake a review of cage breeding in Wales.

‘...our professional Investigators secured drone footage of Bettws Hall, Europe’s biggest game bird hatchery, which according to its website produces 800,000 game bird eggs each week, to show the sheer scale of the operation.’

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In the spring we hosted a very successful Revive hustings in the run up to the Scottish elections on 6 May. It’s a mark of Revive’s credibility that nearly 200 people turned up online to listen to what candidates from all the major political parties thought about the need for radical reform of grouse moors. This wouldn’t have happened at the last election and is testament to both the political and public support for Revive’s aim. It shows how successful the campaign has been in shifting the political discourse in the past three years.

Grouse Moor Reform

Our work in Scotland continued apace. As one of the founding members of the Revive coalition for grouse moor reform, we continued to highlight the circle of destruction surrounding Scottish grouse moors.

An important part of this is the potential environmental damage of thousands of medicated grit stations that litter the land on shooting estates. The medication is left out in the hope it will protect wild grouse from disease, but no one knows what impact it has on other flora or fauna. At the start of the year, the Scottish Government commissioned an agency to report on the issue. As part of this we offered over 8,000 photos and the GPS positions of over 7,000 grit stations that were documented in our 15-month survey of seven Scottish shooting estates to provide crucial intelligence for their report.

We managed to secure different opinion pieces in five Scottish newspapers at the beginning of the grouse shooting season. People talk less and less about “the glorious twelfth” and more and more about “controversial grouse shooting”.

In November, the Revive coalition held its second national conference at the Concert Hall in Perth. More than 400 paying guests attended to hear Chris Packham host an all-star line-up of speakers on the animal welfare, social justice and environmental circle of destruction surrounding grouse moors. Bringing together a broad spectrum of people and asking them to take political action will be crucial when the government announces how it intends to introduce a licensing system of shooting estates in Scotland by the end of this parliament in 2026. There’s still a lot to be done to get this legislation through parliament, but we are determined to reform the Scottish countryside.

The League inspired the Revive coalition’s groundbreaking report, Our Land, which outlines a comprehensive toolkit of policies and actions to provide a roadmap towards land reform in Scotland. The report, by the New Economics Foundation and the Common Weal think tank, has been described by land reform expert Andy Wightman as “the tipping point in the debate”. Our Land addresses issues of social justice and questions why more than a million hectors of Scotland is uneconomically set aside for shooting grouse for entertainment. It analyses why concentrated land ownership is harming Scotland, sets out a comprehensive plan for proper reform, demonstrates that it is legal, and possible within the powers Scotland already has, and sets out a vision for what a new Scottish landscape could look like.

Our professional fieldworkers went to the Cairngorms to obtain footage of the devastating impact of muirburn on Cairngorms National Park. The footage shows the sheer scale of heather burning at the very same time as a global summit on climate change was being held in Glasgow. The film was shown at COP26 and you can see the devastation first-hand HERE .

The report was extensively covered by the National, a pro-independence newspaper, popular with the Scottish National Party and campaigning journalist Lesley Riddoch’s column in the same paper was very complimentary about the report. You can read the report HERE .

‘...we offered over 8,000 photos and the GPS positions of over 7,000 grit stations that were documented in our 15-month survey of seven Scottish shooting estates to provide crucial intelligence for their report.’

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Goal Three End fighting of animals for sport

Sentences for acts of animal cruelty increased

In 2019 we led a delegation of animal welfare charities to urge the Government to stand by its promise to push the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill through Parliament. We are proud to report that in April the bill was passed into law and on 29 June the maximum sentence for crimes under the Animal Welfare Act increased from a paltry six months to five years.

We have been working tirelessly to ensure this important bill was passed into law to act as a strong deterrent for those who would consider mistreating animals. We will continue our calls on the courts to use these new sentences to bring about an end to cruel and savage ‘sports’ like dog fighting, which is still sadly taking place in the UK today.

Partnership working

We provided intelligence packages to three police forces on the movements of a well-known animal fighter who was moving between Northern Ireland, Scotland and Derbyshire. Subsequent warrants were executed at addresses in Northern Ireland and resulted in the recovery of 14 dogs, five of which had recent badger-type wounds.

Our intelligence led us to a suspected dog fighter in south-east England and to a second man wanted by police for a serious aggravated burglary 14 years ago. At the time of his original arrest the second man had numerous dogs, severely injured from fighting, seized from him. Our research assisted the police, who set up a fugitive task force which led to him being arrested. He attended court last summer and received eight years imprisonment for robbery from two elderly people.

We uncovered numerous fox baiting cases and produced intelligence packages which have been passed to police for investigation. Following the shocking footage obtained by the North London Hunt Saboteurs of a man attacking a fox after it was initially bitten by a dog, we supported the Essex police in the case which saw a 48-year old man arrested on suspicion of offences under the Hunting Act 2004.

We provided support to the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SSPCA) in a badger baiting case, in which during the investigation a mobile phone was seized. We provided analysis support and assisted them identify new suspects and further lines of enquiry. This is still an on-going investigation.

We provided various cock fighting intelligence reports to police forces, which resulted in visiting one location and one being forwarded to Trading Standards. The police and Trading Standards executed a search warrant at a site and recovered a number of stolen dogs and found evidence of cock fighting.

Sadly, we are at the hands of local police forces to feedback outcomes from the intelligence packages we provide. Often, we do not hear anything back, which is frustrating and doesn’t allow us to fully assess the impact of our investigative packages provided.

‘...our intelligence led us to a suspected dog fighter in SE England and to a second man wanted by police for a serious aggravated burglary 14 years ago. At the time of his original arrest the second man had numerous dogs, severely injured from fighting, seized from him.’

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Goal Four Win the hearts and minds of a broader audience

A harmless bet at the races?

We called for a parliamentary debate on greyhound racing after a petition on the UK parliament website, calling for it to be banned, reached over 100,000 signatures. According to the industry’s own figures, at least 200 greyhounds tragically died trackside at stadiums across Britain last year and 3,575 were injured, despite a racing schedule reduced by a third due to Covid-19.

The petition called on the Government to introduce legislation that abolishes greyhound racing via a managed shutdown of activities that ensures the welfare of the redundant dogs through a levy on the industry.

The Government responded towards the end of the year stating, “DEFRA supports high welfare for racing greyhounds, considers that welfare concerns are being addressed in many ways, and believes a ban is unnecessary”. We disagree, as do more than 100,000 others and we await the date of when this will be debated in parliament.

In July we joined a protest with the Shut Down Towcester Racecourse group, outside Towcester racecourse ahead of the industry’s most high-profile event, the Greyhound Derby. Since the reopening of the racecourse there has been a lot of support from local residents who do not want this ‘sport’ on their doorstep.

In November we partnered with PETA and Oxford Vegan Action, asking residents to back our campaign to prevent greyhound racing returning to the Blackbird Leys Stadium. Despite being closed in 2012 due to the declining popularity of the sport and the area around the stadium becoming very run down, Galliard Homes, which owns the stadium, was forced to make a U-turn and signed a 10-year lease with greyhound racing promoter Kevin Boothby, managing director of Henlow Racing.

League staff and volunteers gathered on the streets of Oxford to urge the public to take action and sign the online petition calling on Oxford City Council to stop the return of this ‘sport’. More than 3,000 residents signed the online petition. The motion was brought by Cllr Lucy Pegg and was due to be debated on 29 November. Unfortunately, the council ran out of time to debate this matter and the motion was not discussed at the next meeting in January 2022.

Due to the number of people who signed, the petitioner will put forward to the council to debate at a future meeting.

Animal Crimewatch

Our supporter-funded Animal Crimewatch reporting service allows people from across the UK to report animal crimes. In 2021 we received 409 reports from members of the public who were concerned about animal cruelty. As in previous years, fox and cub hunting account for just over 50 per cent of all Animal Crimewatch reports received.

Members of the public can contact us by email, phone, post or by completing an online form; email and online remain the preferred choice of contact. Our revised website, which launched in September last year, made it easier for people to contact us online.

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Award Winning

Last year we won the Gold Award in the Chartered Institute in Public Relations Pride Awards 2021 in the Best Not-For-Profit Campaign for our work at the 2019 General Election. Our campaign saw us take to many towns across the UK asking residents to approach candidates on their views on hunting. It was the first time since the introduction of the Hunting Act 2004 that the Conservative Party took a position that was not absolute repeal, safeguarding the Act. This award is for our supporters and volunteers who made the campaign the success that it was.

We were also joint winners of Birdwatch Birders Choice 2021 Awards in the Campaign of the Year category for our campaign to end trail hunting on National Trust land. We are grateful to the readership for celebrating the culmination of our campaign which resulted in National Trust members voting overwhelmingly to ban trail hunting on its land.

Police and Crime Commissioner Elections

Countryside Collaboration

Through our leadership of the Wildlife and Crime subcommittee of the Wildlife and Countryside LINK, we delivered training to the Crown Prosecution Service’s lawyers and barristers in the Hunting Act 2004 to assist them in successfully prosecuting hunting-related cases. We also secured a chapter on hunting with dogs within LINK’s fourth national wildlife crime report – only the second time the subject has been accepted for inclusion.

In the spring we launched our campaign urging voters to find out the views of their Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) candidates on wildlife crime and their commitment to make it a local and national priority. We called on all election candidates to commit to making hunting with dogs a national wildlife crime priority and to tackle animal cruelty in the countryside.

As part of our campaign, more than 22,000 emails were sent by our supporters to PCC candidates across England and Wales. Over 36 per cent of candidates responded, and we collated these to produce an action of each candidates’ views on wildlife crime. Although hunting with dogs was banned in 2005, we still repeatedly receive reports from the public and our own investigators about hunts chasing and killing foxes, deer and hares. Despite the national lockdown throughout much of last year, we still received more than 300 reports relating to suspected illegal hunting.

‘...more than 22,000 emails were sent by our supporters to PCC candidates across England and Wales. Over 36 per cent of candidates responded.’

We now have the names of the 34 per cent of the PCCs in England and Wales who responded which is significant, as they have the power to administer policing budgets in key priority areas. Making wildlife crime one of those priorities will, we hope, ensure police forces have the funding they need to properly enforce the law and the Hunting Act 2004.

League of Animals

Last year, we launched our League of Animals online educational platform, providing teachers with lesson plans to help inspire young people to discuss and make informed opinions about their attitude to wildlife. We reached nearly 800,000 educational professionals across social media and more than 20,000 visitors accessed our website www.leagueofanimals.org.uk , resulting in 3,500 worksheets being downloaded for students in primary and secondary schools across England.

This free resource was created in partnership with teachers, with teachers at its heart. Materials enable students to have honest discussions about conservation and wildlife. Feedback has been very positive, and we will continue to advocate and promote our unbiased resources to educational establishments throughout the country for the next generation of animal welfare advocates.

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KS1
Living, Dead or
Never Been Alive?
National curriculum objectives Resources (you
will need):
• working scientifically: asking simple questions and recognising that
they can be answered in different ways LOA 04 PDF
• explore and compare the differences between things that are (Pheasant) Flipchart,
living, dead, and things that have never been alive items for investigating
e.g. a pencil, a photo of
an animal and a plant,
lolly sticks (or cones).
30 MINUTE ACTIVITY
Write the following words on flipchart paper and read Have time for a maths link?
them together: eat, drink, grow, move on its own. Learners decide whether things are ‘Living’, ‘Dead’ or ‘Never been alive’ by asking the following questions: Does it eat? Does it grow? Does it move on its own? Put a tick or a cross next to the word. Include a human, a pencil, a plant, an animal (a photo is fine as long as you explain it’s ‘a living animal’). Discuss the difference between ‘dead’ and ‘never been alive’. If something is not alive, and has never been alive, it cannot be dead. This will need to be clarified as it is a Take a walk into the natural world and collect sounds, colours, nouns and movements. When back, split the classroom into the four categories and ask the children to help populate it. Model how to create a poem by stating a noun, adding three adjectives, a simile etc.Shivering green, dripping clearRushing, quivering and trembling,Bracing itself against the wind
common misconception.
Philosopher question
Label lolly sticks or cones with ‘Living’, ‘Dead’ or ‘Never
been alive’. Give pairs or small groups, a few of the labeled objects each and head outside, taking the flipchart paper Can something be dead if it has never been alive?
with you as a reminder. Learners explore the outdoor area
and place markers suggesting what they think is ‘Living’,
‘Dead’ or ‘Never been alive’. Look around at the markers,
have learners marked plants as living? Make sure to
discuss this. Have they labelled any animals? (may not be
possible as they move around).
Class reflection
Show LOA 04 PDF (Pheasant). This is living. Will it ever be
dead? What reasons could mean it dies? Old age, illness,
accident, habitat destruction, sport - sometimes humans kill
animals for fun. How could we stop some of these?
National curriculum objectives
Resources (you
will need) :
KS3
15 MINUTE STAND ALONE
OR OPENING ACTIVITY
Co-Existing or
Interdependent?
Working scientifically national curriculum objective:
• interpret observations and data, including identifying patterns and using observations, measurements and data to draw conclusions LOA 21 (animal
Subject Knowledge national curriculum objective: photographs) PDF
• the interdependence of organisms in an ecosystem, including Interactions and interdependencies: Relationships in an ecosystemfood webs New Species; https://www.BBC Bitesize, Old and
bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/
zthcwmn/revision/2
Activity content:
Using the evolution of the horse (Bitesize, see Resources) Philosopher question:
ask pupils to suggest why changes might have occurred
over a long period of time; what might have changed? Why To what extent is human interference with a species
(Eohippus)?with hooves,than the smaller predecessor with multi-toed feet would today’s horses (Equus) be better suited being larger entertainment become unethical?specific purposes, such as to yield more meat or provide ethical? Through demand, when does breeding for
Using LOA 21 PDF, pupils suggest which animals might
have had similar adaptations over time based on earlier
reasoning or which might have evolved less due to more
stable environmental/habitat. To what extent might the
might lead to extinction?changes be down to human interference, i.e. breeding or
Class reflection:
species?Consider which of the animals do they think might be
discontinuous in the future, why? What is threatening the
Homework idea:
evolved.Using the LOA images pupils research the evolution of
an animal over time and possible reasons as to why it has
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Creating a louder voice for animals

Last year more than 5,000 new supporters added their voices to our calls to protect animals from cruel sports by making a financial contribution to support our campaigns. Through our continued digital investment, we reached more than 7.8m people across social media with over 800 new supporters donating regularly to the League.

Our social media channels achieved high levels of engagement from our followers and our work with key influencers and celebrities enabled us to reach more than five million new people through their networks by sharing our key campaigns and calls to action.

We launched our new look website www.league.org. uk, enabling us to improve the online experience for visitors, giving greater clarity on the strands of our work and how they can get involved, be it through campaigning, advocacy or fundraising.

Growing our reach

In 2021 the League was mentioned 2,826 times in separate media articles. On TV and radio, our name and key messages were mentioned 151 times, including frequent prime time coverage on ITV News, BBC News and Sky News.

On Boxing Day, articles in the Mirror and Guardian newspapers and websites alone had a combined audience reach of 37.7 million.

Our advertorial content in publications such as The Spectator and House Magazine ensured our messages were put in front of those in power, resulting in positive feedback from members of both Houses of Parliament. This included comprehensively referencing our advertorial to strengthen the arguments in favour of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill.

Our Wildlife Reserves wildlife

It has been a busy year on our wildlife reserves, which also increased in number from nine to ten.

At the start of the year, a rare barbastelle bat was found roosting in a hide on our flagship reserve, Baronsdown, bringing the number of bat species we know which are using the reserve to seven. Freezing temperatures created spectacular ice sculptures where springs drain through the old Baronsdown gardens.

As spring arrived, chiffchaffs and willow warblers returned to the reserves after their journey to Africa and back, followed by redstarts, wood warblers and cuckoos. Pied flycatchers returned to Baronsdown and made use of bird boxes that had been replaced in Barlynch Wood. Badger and fox cubs ventured above ground, and regular sightings of fallow deer on Baronsdown made an interesting addition to the fauna on the reserve.

As summer began, red deer calves were born on the reserves, and we held our first supporter visit since the outbreak of Covid-19. In the height of summer, a beautiful bonanza of butterflies dazzled the reserves, and three badger cubs were vaccinated on Baronsdown as part of an ongoing programme. Survey tubes placed in St Johns Wood produced their first hazel dormice, which was a first for the site.

As autumn set in, we discovered a barn owl using a nest box on Baronsdown and started our work repairing the wildlife hides on the land. These will be developed during 2022 as photography hides for paying visitors.Towards the end of the year we held our annual legacy event and were delighted to be invited to give a presentation to Exeter University ecology students on our joint Cove Down project, which is part of the larger Devon Rewilding Network.

Towards the end of the year, we were gifted an ecologically diverse and flourishing new reserve, Stoke Brook Wood, from a generous couple who have been supporting us for many years.

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More
than 7.8m
people reached on social media platforms with
over 800
new supporters donating regularly to
the League.
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5,000

new supporters added their voices to our calls to protect animals from cruel sports by making a financial contribution to support our campaigns

2,826

mentions in separate media articles in 2021

Our name and key messages were mentioned on TV and Radio

On Boxing Day, articles in the Mirror and Guardian newspapers and websites alone had a combined audience reach of

151 Times

including frequent prime time coverage on reach of ITV News , BBC News and Sky News . 37.7m

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People Reporting

At the League we believe in fair and consistent renumeration. We became an accredited Living Wage employer in 2020 demonstrating our commitment to ensure all employees and third party contracted staff earn a wage that meets the genuine cost of living. We annually benchmark to ensure our staff receive a fair and competitive salary, so we can attract and retain the best people to achieve our animal outcomes.

The environmental sector as a whole is underrepresentative of society, particularly in relation to ethnic minority backgrounds. The League’s Diversity and Inclusion Group looks not only to ensure that League policy and operations are inclusive for everyone, but also explores avenues to reach out to underrepresented groups.

Our staff survey points to very high levels of engagement and satisfaction. Staff turnover remains low at 12.44 per cent, two per cent under the sector benchmark. For the fourth year in row, there has been no turnover amongst the senior management team. Our staff benefits package can be viewed HERE.

As part of our people policy, we actively work to ensure pay gaps are minimised and exceed the national average. Hand in hand with fair remuneration is providing equal access to training so that all staff benefit from exposure to development opportunities.

Pay Gap (minus CEO)	National Average Pay Gap	2020	2021	Change from previous year
Gender Pay Gap	17.3%	13.84%	12.06%	-1.78%
Disability Pay Gap	12.2%	15.2%	4%	-11.2%
Ethnicity Pay Gap (white background and ethnic minority background)	21.7%	19.9%	6.78%	-13.12%

With a total headcount of 58 staff, any changes to personnel can significantly impact the statistics

Change from previous year indicating negative figures show a narrowing (improvement) in the pay gaps.

Pay Ratio	2019	2020	2021
Highest paid salary (£)	91,350	89,279	93,451
Median (£)	29,196	29,866	30,034
Ratio	3.1	2.99	3.1

Annual Salary entitlements

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90,001 – 100,000 Key
Female 35
80,001 – 90,000
Male 23
Total no. of staff: 58
70,001 – 80,000
60,001 – 70,000
50,001 – 60,000
40,001 – 50,000
30,001 – 40,000
20,001 – 30,000
Up to 20,000
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Annual Salary (£’000)
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Staff numbers

Staff numbers and salary figures are based on the full time equivalent of staff salary entitlements as at 31 December 2021

All staff received a pay increase in January 2020, the CEO took a voluntary pay cut during 2020 due to the pandemic and had pay reinstated at 2020 level in 2021. Pay figures on the above tables are based on actual staff pay during the financial year.

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Sustainability Statement

Managing our Wildlife Reserves

Changing Behaviours

We foster a ‘think green’ culture, providing staff with relevant environmental training and initiated a Green Team in 2020. Their role is to ensure League activity promotes sustainability

Most ecosystems around the world have been adversely impacted by human activities, which has resulted in a

breakdown of the natural systems that sustain life. We are now starting to feel the results of these failing systems through climate change, extreme weather events, flooding, soil erosion, desertification, displaced people, and the mass extinction of wildlife.

to reduce our environmental impact. This year the Green Team initiatives have included defining ecofriendly, cruelty-free standards for suppliers and the launch of our ethical procurement policy. Current suppliers have all been reviewed in line with this policy, ensuring they have strong eco credentials, including our bank and pension scheme. Office supplies have been reviewed to be greener, with a local refill station to minimise packaging, and recycled paper used for printing. The team have also undertaken an eco-swap initiative which saw them trial different environmentally friendly alternatives, before reporting on their effectiveness and promoting to staff.

Rewilding is about working with nature to allow natural processes to restore ecosystems and to restart natural systems. It is also about connecting ecosystems over a landscape scale to help reverse the catastrophic declines in wildlife. As ecosystems are restored, biodiversity increases, and the nature recovery process accelerates. Rewilding takes a minimal intervention approach, and it is largely left to nature, rather than humans, to determine the outcomes.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

On the League’s Cove Down reserve in Devon, we have been working with neighbouring landowners for almost four years to ‘rewild’ land that was previously managed for livestock production and forestry. Cove Down reserve is about 60 acres and our neighbours have added another 120 acres to the project.

Our passion is to reduce, reuse and recycle. As part of our new hybrid working structure and spending less time in the office, we reorganised our office workspace and had a number of surplus office items that were no longer used or required. We were able to repurpose or recycle 83 per cent of materials as part of this project. All our campaigns and marketing materials are produced using recyclable materials and can be recycled after use. Paper is our largest consumable, and we had a specific target to reduce usage during 2021. We successfully reduced our paper purchase by 42 per cent last year.

As part of the project, we have stopped cutting grass and sheep are no longer grazed on the land. Grazing is currently left to the deer and rabbits that frequent the reserve. Where sheep (and rabbits) graze grass to a uniformly close-cropped sward, deer are more selective and already the fields have become tussocky, which is great for insects, small mammals and predatory species. Our project partners have constructed a series of ponds to slow water flowing through the entire site. They have also bought four Iron Age pigs and are considering buying two Longhorn cattle that are trained for ‘no-fence’ grazing as part of the project.

One benefit the pandemic has brought is a reduction in commuting to the office, thereby reducing the overall greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel consumption and energy usage. On average 2020 saw a 64 per cent decrease in staff commuting and in 2021 a further 57 per cent year on year decrease. Lockdowns and government directives to work from home over the last two years have contributed to this and we anticipate a slight increase next year without such guidance. However, with our new long-term hybrid way of working we expect commuting to be on average 68 per cent less than pre-pandemic levels.

Reducing our impact with

reduced office usage

Our electricity is 100 per cent green – derived from the sun, wind and sea. The energy provider generates around 20 per cent of it themselves and the rest is certified green energy bought from other

green generators or via the wholesale market. They are building new wind and sun parks across the country to increase the number of renewables in Britain rather than just trading what already exists. They’re also always researching and developing newer, bigger and more efficient ways of generating green energy.

As part of our continued effort to ‘think green’ our Green Team will put in formal metrics to measure trends and our success in reducing our environmental impact during 2022.

‘...On the League’s Cove Down reserve in Devon, we have been working with neighbouring landowners for almost four years to ‘rewild’ land that was previously managed for livestock production and forestry. Already the fields have become tussocky, which is great for insects, small mammals and predatory species.”

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Fundraising Governance

‘...we are committed to ensuring that we always treat the public sensitively, fairly, and respectfully, taking care to protect people who may find themselves in vulnerable circumstances. Our Supporter Care Team are fully trained to recognise potentially vulnerable people they may speak to.’

This report covers the requirements set out in The Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016.

We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and are committed to the Fundraising Promise and adherence to the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIoF) Code of Fundraising Practice. All supporters donating to the League can be assured that we comply with the regulatory standards for fundraising.

We use a range of fundraising activities to generate income. These include sending letters and emails to our supporters, running online acquisition campaigns, holding seasonal raffles each year, our League Lotto, gifts in wills, trusts and foundations. corporate partners and building relationships with philanthropists. We complete thorough due diligence before entering any new partnerships to ensure associates are aligned with our values.

In 2021 we continued our successful digital acquisition campaign using social media platforms to recruit new regular supporters. We use third-party suppliers to help us raise funds, particularly where we do not have the in-house expertise. We have safeguards in place when working with suppliers, so we protect our supporters and the reputation of the League. In 2021 we launched an Ethical Procurement Policy to ensure that we work with suppliers who meet out high standards, with goods and services which are environmentally and socially responsible.

Our website outlines our complaints policy for the public and clearly explains how an individual can make a complaint. We received just two complaints about our fundraising activities in 2021, a decrease of 33 per cent from the 2020 financial year. We responded to all complaints within three working days and they are dealt with in line with our Supporter Care Policy. We are also signed up to the Fundraising Preference Service to enable individuals to opt-out from receiving fundraising communications from us. We actioned six requests from this service in 2021, a 50 per cent decrease from the previous year.

We are committed to ensuring that we always treat the public sensitively, fairly, and respectfully, taking care to protect people who may find themselves in vulnerable circumstances. Our Supporter Care Team are fully trained to recognise potentially vulnerable people they may speak to. This approach is in line with the requirements of the Charities (Protection and Social Investment) Act 2016 and the CIoF Treating Donors Fairly guidance. We have a robust General Data Protection Regulation framework in place to ensure we are compliant with a designated Data Protection Officer. Our privacy and cookies policies are regularly updated to ensure supporters are fully informed as to how, when and where we use their data.

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Structure, Governance and Management

The League Against Cruel Sports is a charity registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Registration No. 1095234) and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (Registration No. SC045533). It is also a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales (Company Registered No. 04037610). Its objects and powers are set out in its Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The Charity has a wholly owned subsidiary, the League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited, which is a private company limited by shares incorporated in England and Wales (Company Registered No. 02880406). Its principle activity is to act solely as a subsidiary company for carrying out trading activities on behalf of The League Against Cruel Sports charity. The company results and financial position are detailed in note 17 to the financial statements.

The governing body of the charity is the Board of Trustees, comprising of not fewer than three nor more than twelve unpaid members. The Board meet at least three times a year to review performance against its plans, approve future financial plans based on the agreed strategy, setting policies and to make any decisions necessary to its governance and strategic direction. The Board has ultimate responsibility for the conduct and financial stability of the charity group. The Finance, Risk and General purposes Committee is a sub-committee of the Board and also meets regularly to consider issues appertaining to the charity group and informs the wider Board. Over 2021 the Committee members were Tim Holmes, John Hughes and Astrid Clifford.

Day-to-day financial responsibility and managerial control are delegated by the Board to the Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive and Senior Management Team meet twice monthly to discuss operations and financial performance.

Trustees are appointed by a majority of the voting members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for a term of up to three years or can be co-opted by the Board of Trustees until the next AGM. A comprehensive recruitment exercise is undertaken for the appointment

of new Trustees to ensure the Board have the depth and breadth of skills and experience necessary to be an effective Trustee of The League Against Cruel Sports. The Board appoints a recruitment panel which undertakes the selection process, carries out interviews, and makes recommendations to the Board for their approval.

New Trustees attend an induction day at the League’s headquarters, to learn about the charity’s mission, strategy and objectives. They also learn about their role and responsibilities as a Trustee. We also use the opportunity for them to meet and speak with the League staff.

The Charitable Company has made qualifying thirdparty indemnity provisions for the benefit of its directors which were made during the year and remain in force at the date of this report.

Remuneration Policy

The Board of Trustees determines the Chief Executive’s salary and reviews this each year, in line with the Charity’s pay policy. The Board also approves recommendations made by the Chief Executive on any pay changes to the Senior Management Team salaries, and other staff pay changes as a result of the annual staff pay review.

Our approach to remuneration of staff is designed to ensure we can attract and retain people with the passion, commitment and talent we need to deliver our mission. We aim to pay competitively in the notfor-profit sector within the context of affordability, using external salary survey to benchmark our salaries against other similar charities.

The annual pay increases are awarded in January each year taking into account pay inflation, organisational affordability, and any mandatory statutory increases. Our remuneration policy approach is applied consistently across the organisation, through our annual pay review process.

The League has committed to paying our employees no less than the real living wage and as such is accredited by the Good Business Charter.

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Financial Review

2021 was the second year of Covid-19 restrictions and whilst this whole period has had a significant negative impact on many charities, the League has not only once again ‘weathered the storm’ but made some incredible achievements in pursuance of our charity work whilst maintaining strong financial stability.

We are able to report another financially successful year with our performance significantly exceeding the 2021 annual budget plan; income achieving in excess of target coupled with savings on expenditure budgets resulting in an overall small excess of expenditure over income of £48k.

With the easing of the lockdown restrictions in the second half of the year we were able to restart some of our key activities that had been on hold, in particular our field investigations, campaign events and supporter campaigning work. Furthermore, we plan to expand our campaigning and supporter resources in the next year to achieve even more.

All of this could not have been achieved without the commitment and fortitude of our members and supporters, who individually have all been impacted in some way by Covid-19 and the ensuing economic problems. These economic difficulties may be with us some time and we value our continuing public support, and in return we will not be complacent in ensuring the League continues to be the voice for animals persecuted in the name of sport supported by robust financial management and future financial sustainability.

We are in a financially strong position to start 2022 and have clear, robust five year financial plans in support of our strategy, but we are mindful that the world economy will continue to be challenging for the charity sector and the League. It is comforting to know that we have reserves to help us deal with the financial challenges ahead during these testing times.

Income

Total group income for the year was £3.1m, a decrease of £158k or 5% on last year. The League reports on three key areas of income generation performance: legacies, donations and memberships. Although we also generate income from our trading activities and investment income from cash deposits.

Legacy income was slightly lower than last year at £1.6m and represented 53% of our total income for the year. Given the continuing reports of charity sector’s legacy problems, this performance has once again been better than expected. Legacy income is a significant income source and is crucial to the League in achieving its ambitions. However, legacies are difficult to predict in terms of the amount and timing of receipt. Like other charities, the League has experienced a delay to legacy income materialising as cash receipts due to delays in obtaining probate and estates being finalised, nevertheless our records indicate that our supporter legacies pipeline remains strong.

Donations and gifts income amounted to £1.1m for the year, an increase of 8% on last year. Our new fundraising strategies and expansion in our pro-active supporter acquisition campaign have produced year-on-year growth, that we plan to continue to build upon. Our 2021 fundraising campaigns included: the launch of the League Life monthly campaigns update, new products in our merchandise range, re-launch of League Lotto, new sports and challenge events, four themed appeals in the year: Campaigns update, Will you help me keep wild deer out of harm’s way, Cub hunting, Christmas kindness campaign and three issues of our Protect magazine to inform and encourage supporter action.

In the year we received grants of £68k in connection with the Government Job Retention Scheme funding to help support the costs of staff not fully utilised during 2021 due to covid lockdown restrictions.

giver supporters and appreciate their enduring commitment to help the League achieve its charitable objectives through their day-to-day support of our work and their participation of ‘on the ground’ action.

Other trading income was £140k, marginally higher than last year. This increase is from merchandise and other sales, with new product offerings in the year, and Raffle and Lotto sales.

Expenditure

Total resources expended in furtherance of our charitable objectives for the year was £3.1m, an increase of £110k or 4% on last year. With the easing of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions during the year we were able to restart certain operations that had been on hold. Including allocated support costs, expenditure on charitable activities was £2.76m, an increase of 4% on the previous year, and fundraising costs were £381k, an increase of 5%.

Expenditure on our four core charitable activities amounted to 87% in total with 12% spent on fund raising publicity and trading, and 1% on governance. During the year the number of staff employed increased from 54 to 56.

Balance Sheet

As at the year end the Group had total net assets of £4.2m; represented by fixed assets of £1.6m, current assets of £2.7m and current liabilities of £0.1m.

Group funds consist of £4.1m unrestricted funds (2020: £4.1m) and £0.1m of restricted funds (2020: £0.1m). At the year end there were no designated funds by the Board of Trustees (2020: Nil).

The funds are detailed in note 13 to the financial statements.

Total reserves/net assets continue to provide the Group with a strong working capital base for the start of 2022 and beyond.

Reserves Policy

Reserves are key in ensuring the long-term viability of the Charity. The Board of Trustees regularly monitors the level of retained reserves, when reviewing financial performance in the management accounts, and reviews the overall reserves policy annually as part of the five-year financial plan review. Our policy remains in line with the Charity Commission’s advice on managing charity reserves over the pandemic.

Our reserves policy is based on a risk identification approach calculating an appropriate level of unrestricted reserves to cover our contractual commitments, working capital requirements, and to manage possible fluctuations in future income levels; this calculation also takes into account our fixed asset holdings. Our five-year financial planning aims to achieve a target level of reserves to cover all these identified risks and ensure we have long-term financial stability.

At the financial year end the amount of free unrestricted reserves available for general purposes was £2.4m, equivalent to 7.5 months operating expenditure. Although this is more than our normal target level of reserves, given the continuing economic uncertainty the Board feels it is appropriate to maintain a relatively higher level of reserves whilst at the same time encouraging our continuing ambitious expansion plans. Despite the challenges of the Covid lockdown the League has made significant gains both in our delivery and in supporter income growth, and the Board is eager to maintain this momentum with continuing investment of reserves into delivery programmes and improving our supporter experience.

The Board will continue to regularly monitor the League’s performance against its agreed plans.

Income from membership fees reduced slightly to £105k as some supporters chose to move to our regular giver supporter package. We continue to value our loyal members alongside our regular

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Investment Policy

With the continuing instability of the stock markets the Trustees have agreed that shares and stock given to or left to the League should be sold at the earliest beneficial opportunity. There was no loss on any investments received or sold during the year. The ongoing uncertainty of the markets has led to the Trustees continuing their policy of holding reserves in either property or cash deposits and not by investing in the stock markets. Cash deposits are spread over a number of authorised firms to take advantage of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and to reduce the potential risk of any losses occurring.

The policy will be reviewed by the Trustees during 2022 with due regard to our forecast cash flow requirements.

Public Benefit

The Charities Act 2011 requires that Trustees explain in their annual report how it is that their activities demonstrate the public benefit of their work within the meaning of the Act.

In charity law the advancement of animal welfare is recognised as a charitable purpose. The League’s main objective is to prevent or reduce cruelty to animals in the name of sport. Whilst the League may use a number of different means to further this objective and will strive to push at boundaries, it is careful to ensure that it remains within the remit of its charitable objectives and within the strict parameters of charity law at all times.

Examples of the League’s work are:

• The investigation and monitoring of possible wildlife offences;

• Informing and educating on the impact of the Hunting Act 2004, including amendments or repeal;

• Informing and educating the public about the cruelty aspect of using animals for ‘sporting’ purposes;

• Informing and educating the public about animal welfare problems associated with ‘sport’ such as the use of snares and the intensive production of ‘game’ birds;

• Liaison with elected officials who have the power to both enforce the law and to enhance it.

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Internal Controls and Risk Management

The Trustees are responsible for ensuring the League group has a sound system of internal control to safeguard its assets and funds, and for ensuring that its assets and funds are used only in furtherance of the League’s objectives. The system of internal control is intended to manage appropriately rather than to eliminate risks and to provide reasonable rather than absolute assurance. The Charity is one that arouses strong passions and potential threats to it are ever present, particularly from those who challenge its very existence, credibility, and direction.

Trustees have developed an effective risk management framework for the assessment of major risks to which the Charity is exposed, that has been used successfully throughout the year. The assessment and documentation of risk is carried out by the Senior Management Team led by the Chief Executive Officer, supported by the Finance Director, both of whom have considerable experience and expertise in this area. Risk factors are identified and assessed for scale, and each risk is assigned to a member of the Senior Management Team to take responsibility for identifying the steps needed to manage or mitigate the risk. These risk assessments are documented in a risk register and are reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that new risks are identified and that actions proposed to mitigate or manage risks are being undertaken. The risks to the charity are also assessed and reviewed by the Trustees twice yearly, with quarterly updates to the Finance Risk and General (FRAG) Committee. The CEO also raises specific risks at his weekly call with the Chair and Honorary Treasurer.

Risk to the Charity has diminished considerably for the fourth year running, with the League reaping the rewards of the necessary changes in governance and management made in 2018. The consistency and courage in our approach to malicious trolls and fake stories has proven highly effective and illustrates what can be done when staff and Trustees are protected

from harm. As a result, trolling has gone from near pandemic levels experienced in the past, to near zero during this reporting period as well as the last. Sickness and absence rates (half of which is generally accepted as related to poor mental health/stress) has decreased ten-fold since January 2018, reflecting the safe space that working for the League affords staff, and continues to remain at a fraction of the national average. The net result is that the Charity has been able to focus on its charitable objects without distraction, as seen in its operational results.

Despite the challenges of Covid 19, the Charity operated with little impact. Covid 19 safety measures, including much of the year spent with staff working from home and for some, on furlough for a short time, were continued from the previous year according to the situation. The health and jobs of all staff have been preserved, including through the continued careful stewardship of our finances and the generosity of our supporters.

Our top five risks are considered to be:

1. Reputational. False allegations and/or reporting that unnecessarily malign or diminish the Charity or those therein. This includes from fake websites, social media, officials outside of the Charity, and from those formerly associated with the Charity, or through the use of knowing or unwitting proxies. Careful consideration is made on a case-by-case basis, with risks associated with each circumstance considered and actions, including legal and using the regulatory process, adopted.

2. Breaches in data protection. This includes IT security, software vulnerabilities, and GDPR. Considerable investment has gone into assuring our systems and processes, including multilayer IT security, training and the adoption of best practice. These have protected us. Individuals that have engaged in malicious actions designed to breach GDPR protocols have failed.

3. Health, Safety and Environment. New

procedures, the continuing strengthening of policies, tighter managerial oversight, together with the continued inculcation of strong safety culture that includes safety training, continue to be highly effective. Safety measures and precautions, in line with Government guidelines, have protected staff throughout the Coronavirus pandemic. Close and meaningful engagement with staff, flexible working, access to a variety of mental health support and a continued pulling together of an already close-knit team has minimised the incidence of sickness and absence and has ensured our individual and collective well-being.

4. Finances. Having sufficient funds to continue our charitable objectives is essential. Our robust in year and five-year financial planning has proved effective and has enabled us to make accurate judgements on operational spending. It is based on achievable income targets and built-in flexibility within its spending plans, backed by a strong reserves base which is largely unchanged from 2020. Despite the Charity being affected by more universal legal delays in the processing of legacies, our pipeline remains strong. Our total fundraised income was up five per cent from previous year and we expect this trend to continue. Our ‘Grow to Win’ approach is working, and we will seek to continue with our strategy of focusing resources where we can best achieve our charitable objectives, including the use of reserves to do so.

Fraud is an ever increasing risk for all businesses. To combat this risk, the League has good internal control systems in place, supported by our annual review of internal controls as well as the external audit review, regular fraud awareness reviews and staff training. In addition, the League also has a comprehensive “whistle blowing” policy in place.

5. Skills and experience. Having the required skills

in house is vital if we are to be an effective charity. Once again there has been no churn amongst the 13 key personnel that constitute the Board and Senior Management team, the latter now well into their fifth year working together. Looking forward, the Board has recently completed a successful and heavily oversubscribed Trustee recruitment process, which will add additional areas of expertise and allow those coming to their planned end of volunteering as Trustees to hand over their duties later this year. More generally, the level of corporate knowledge, skill and expertise is as likely as high as it has ever been, with attrition rates at all levels of the staff extremely low and many staff now considered as being long-standing. Our external relationships, especially in the wider animal charity sector and amongst senior politicians is stronger than ever. A myriad of operational wins and a general feeling of satisfaction means that morale remains very high. More staff are being hired to increase our momentum still further.

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Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees, who are also the directors of The League Against Cruel Sports for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees’ Report and the accounts in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Company Law requires the Trustees to prepare accounts for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that year. In preparing these accounts, the Trustees are required to:

• select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;

• observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP (Statement of Recommended Practice);

• make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;

• state whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the accounts; and

• prepare the accounts on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the Charity will continue in operation.

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the accounts comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the Trustees are aware:

• There is no relevant information of which the charitable company’s auditor is unaware; and

• The Trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

Auditors

A resolution proposing that Haysmacintyre LLP be reappointed as auditors of the company will be put to the members. This report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relating to small companies within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006.

On behalf of the Board of Trustees

Dr Tim Holmes

Chair

Dated: 26th April 2022

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Financial Statements

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Independent auditor’s report to the members and trustees of the League Against Cruel Sports

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of the League Against Cruel Sports for the year ended 31 December 2021 which comprise the Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities, the Group and Charitable Company Balance Sheet and the Consolidated Cash Flow Statement and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s and of the parent charitable company’s affairs as at 31 December 2021 and of the group’s and parent charitable company’s net movement in funds, including the income and expenditure, for the year then ended;

• have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and

• have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 8 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the

FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the Trustees’ Report. Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a

material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the information given in the Trustees’ Report (which includes the directors’ report prepared for the purposes of company law) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and

• the directors’ report included within the Trustees’ Report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the group and the parent charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Trustees’ Report (which incorporates the directors’ report).

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which the Companies Act 2006 and the Charity Accounts (Scotland) Regulations (as amended) require us to report to you if, in our opinion:

• adequate accounting records have not been kept by the parent charitable company, or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or

• the parent charitable company financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or

• certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or

• we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit; or

• the trustees were not entitled to prepare the financial statements in accordance with the small companies’ regime and take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of trustees for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the trustees’ responsibilities statement set out on page 70, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the group’s and the parent charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the group or the parent charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the

financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists.

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Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of noncompliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

Based on our understanding of the group and the environment in which it operates, we identified that the principal risks of non-compliance with laws and regulations related to fundraising regulations, GDPR and Charities Act 2011, and we considered the extent to which non-compliance might have a material effect on the financial statements. We also considered those laws and regulations that have a direct impact on the preparation of the financial statements such as the Charities Act 2011 and the application of FRS 102, income tax and payroll tax.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org. uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor’s report.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006, section 44(1) (c) of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005 and regulation 10 of the Charities Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an Auditor’s report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Adam Halsey (Senior Statutory Auditor)

We evaluated management’s incentives and

opportunities for fraudulent manipulation of the financial statements (including the risk of override of controls) and determined that the principal risks were related to posting inappropriate journal entries to revenue and management bias in accounting estimate. Audit procedures performed by the engagement team included:

• Enquiries of management regarding correspondence with regulators and tax authorities;

For and on behalf of Haysmacintyre LLP, Statutory Auditors

Dated: 26th April 2022

10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

• Discussions with management including consideration of known or suspected instances of non-compliance with laws and regulation and fraud;

• Evaluating management’s controls designed to prevent and detect irregularities;

• Identifying and testing journals, in particular, journal entries posted with unusual account combinations, postings by unusual users or with unusual descriptions; and

• Challenging assumptions and judgements made by management in their critical accounting estimates;

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The League Against Cruel Sports

Consolidated Statement of Financial Activities including income and expenditure account for the year ended 31 December 2021

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
Notes Funds £ Funds £ 2021 £ 2020 £
INCOME FROM:
Donations and legacies 2 2,926,450 14,310 2,940,760 3,087,096
Other trading activities 3 139,689 - 139,689 138,490
Investments 4 15,150 - 15,150 27,621
Total income 3,081,289 14,310 3,095,599 3,253,207
EXPENDITURE ON:
Raising funds
Fundraising and publicity
5 312,279 610 312,889 277,195
costs
Costs of trading activities 5 68,480 - 68,480 84,684
380,759 610 381,369 361,879
Charitable activities
End Hunting with Dogs 5 1,204,730 7,527 1,212,257 1,110,689
End Shooting of Animals
5 405,263 7,502 412,765 465,542
for ‘Sport’
End Fighting of Animals
5 94,338 3,285 97,623 140,719
for ‘Sport’
Win Hearts and Minds 5 1,029,159 10,259 1,039,418 954,143
2,733,490 28,573 2,762,063 2,671,093
Total expenditure 3,114,249 29,183 3,143,432 3,032,972
Net income/(expenditure) (32,960) (14,873) (47,833) 220,235
Fund balances at 1 January 4,140,922 123,915 4,264,837 4,044,602
Fund balances at 31 December 4,107,962 109,042 4,217,004 4,264,837
----- End of picture text -----

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The statement of financial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expenditure account under the Companies Act 2006.

The League Against Cruel Sports

Consolidated Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2021

----- Start of picture text -----
Notes £ 2021 £ £ 2020 £
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets 7 1,660,484 1,667,725
CURRENT ASSETS
Stocks 9 14,022 14,284
Debtors 10 945,352 603,972
Cash deposit investments 1,472,299 2,000,052
Cash at bank and in hand 252,604 188,782
2,684,277 2,807,090
LIABILITIES
Creditors: Amounts falling
11 (127,757) (209,978)
due within one year
Net current assets 2,556,520 2,597,112
Total assets less current
4,217,004 4,264,837
liabilities
Creditors: Amounts falling
due after more than one year - -
Total net assets 4,217,004 4,264,837
INCOME FUNDS
Restricted funds 13 109,042 123,915
Unrestricted funds 13
- -
Designated funds
General unrestricted funds 4,107,962 4,140,922
Total unrestricted funds 13 4,107,962 4,140,922
Total group funds 4,217,004 4,264,837
----- End of picture text -----

The financial statements were approved by the Board and authorised for issue on 11th April 2022 and signed on behalf of the Board of Trustees by

Dr Timothy Holmes Trustee Company Registration No. 04037610

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The League Against Cruel Sports

The League Against Cruel Sports

Charitable Company Balance Sheet as at 31 December 2021

----- Start of picture text -----
Notes £ 2021 £ £ 2020 £
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets 7 1,660,484 1,667,725
Investment in subsidiary 17 12 12
1,660,496 1,667,737
CURRENT ASSETS
Stocks 9 14,022 14,284
Debtors 10 945,768 604,183
Cash deposit investments 1,472,299 2,000,052
Cash at bank and in hand 200,859 136,930
2,632,948 2,755,449
LIABILITIES
Creditors: Amounts falling
11 (127,757) (209,978)
due within one year
Net current assets 2,505,191 2,545,471
Total assets less current
4,165,687 4,213,208
liabilities
Creditors: Amounts falling
due after more than one year - -
Total net assets 4,165,687 4,213,208
INCOME FUNDS
Restricted income funds 13 109,042 123,915
Unrestricted funds
- -
Designated funds
General unrestricted funds 4,056,645 4,089,293
Total unrestricted funds 4,056,645 4,089,293
Total charity funds 4,165,687 4,213,208
----- End of picture text -----

Statement of Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 31 December 2021

----- Start of picture text -----
Notes £ 2021 £ £ 2020 £
CASHFLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Net cash used in operating
a (452,008) (89,296)
activities
CASHFLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
Interest from investments 15,150 27,621
Purchase of tangible fixed -
(27,073)
assets
Net cash provided by/
(11,923) 27,621
(used in) investing activities
Change in cash and cash
equivalents in the (463,931) (61,675)
reporting period
Cash and cash equivalents at
the beginning of the 2,188,834 2,250,509
reporting period
Cash and cash equivalents
at the end of the reporting b 1,724,903 2,188,834
period
----- End of picture text -----

The financial statements were approved by the Board and authorised for issue on 26th April 2022 and signed on behalf of the Board of Trustees by

Dr Timothy Holmes Trustee Company Registration No. 04037610

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a. Reconciliation of net income/(expenditure) to net cash from operating activities

	Notes		2021 £		2020 £
Net income/(expenditure) for the reporting period (as per the Statement of Financial Activities)			(47,833)		220,235
ADJUSTMENTS FOR:
Depreciation	7		34,314		30,088
Interest from Investments	4		(15,150)		(27,621)
(Increase)/decrease in stocks			262		2,758
(Increase)/decrease in debtors			(341,380)		(234,932)
Increase/(decrease) in creditors current			(82,221)		(79,824)
Net cash used in operating activities			(452,008)		(89,296)

b. Analysis of cash and cash equivalents

----- Start of picture text -----
2021 £ 2020 £
Deposits 1,472,299 2,000,052
Cash in hand 252,604 188,782
Total cash and cash
1,724,903 2,188,834
equivalents
----- End of picture text -----

The cash deposits are invested over a wider range of regulated financial institutions to improve the security of the cash reserves. The majority of deposits have notice periods of less than 6 months and all are repayable within 12 months.

The League Against Cruel Sports

for the year ended 31 December 2021 Notes to the financial statements

other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

Charity Information

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised if the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods if the revision affects both current and future periods .

The League Against Cruel Sports is a registered charity in England and Wales (charity number 1095234) and in Scotland (OSCR charity number SC045533), and a company limited by guarantee (Company Registered Number 04037610) and domiciled in the UK, and is a public benefit entity.

The address of the registered office is: New Sparling House, Holloway Hill, Godalming, Surrey , GU7 1QZ.

1.4 Going concern

Based on the level of reserves held at the year end and the latest five year financial plans the Trustees are confident that The League Against Cruel Sports is financially secure in its immediate future for the next 12 months and that on this basis the Charity is a going concern.

1 Accounting Policies

1.1 Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) – Charities SORP 2015 (Second Edition, effective 1 January 2019), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006.

The Trustees regularly review detailed financial budgets and forecasts, which are adjusted to take into account revised assumptions and events. Where such forecasts indicate a potential problem corrective action is taken to protect the future viability of the Charity. The key risks assessed are described in the Trustees’ Annual Report. The trustees believe there are no material uncertainties concerning the going concern status of the charitable group.

The League Against Cruel Sports meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS102.

1.5 Charitable funds

Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost of transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the accounts.

1.2 Basis for consolidation

The financial statements consolidate the results of the Charity and its wholly owned subsidiary League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited on a line by line basis. A separate Statement of Financial Activities and income and expenditure accounts are not presented for the Charity itself following the exemptions afforded by section 408 of the Companies Act 2006 and paragraph 397 of the Statement of Recommended Practice.

Designated funds are amounts of unrestricted funds which have been earmarked at the discretion of the Trustees for particular future purposes.

Unrestricted funds are available for the use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the objectives of the Charity.

1.6 Income

1.3 Key judgements and assumptions

In the application of the Charity’s accounting policies the Trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying values of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and underlying assumptions are based on historical experience and

All income is accounted for when due.

In respect of legacy income, the Charities SORP requires legacy income to be recognised when it is receivable unless it is incapable of financial measurement. The Charity mainly receives pecuniary and residuary legacies and accounts for them as receivable when (i) entitlement

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The League Against Cruel Sports Notes to the financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2021

has been established (ii) receipt is probable and (iii) the sum involved is measurable. All three tests must be met for the League to accrue a legacy. Entitlement exists when grant of probate has been received evidencing that a gift has been left to the Charity and the executor is satisfied that there are sufficient funds to pay and in the case of residuary legacies that final accounts have been agreed. Measurability is the estimate of the fair value of the income receivable based on the information available, but measured or estimated with sufficient reliability.

1.7 Expenditure

Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and allocated between the expenditure categories of the Statement of Financial Activities (SOFA) on a basis to reflect the use of the resources. Where support costs cannot be directly attributed they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of the resources as shown in note 5.

Fundraising and publicity costs represent direct and apportioned costs relating to supporter recruitment and maintenance and fundraising activities and events.

Costs of trading activities represents direct and apportioned costs relating to the sale of merchandise and other sales of goods.

Charitable activity expenditure represents direct and apportioned costs relating to carrying out our strategic objectives as set out in the Trustees Annual Report.

Support costs include governance, staff, office and general management costs including human resources, IT and the finance function incurred to support income generation and delivery of the charitable activities. Support costs also include irrecoverable VAT where it is not able to be directly attributed to specific activities, where this is not possible irrecoverable VAT costs are apportioned.

Governance costs represent direct and indirect costs incurred relating to strategic management and compliance with constitutional and statutory requirements.

1.8 Tangible Fixed Assets and Depreciation

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently stated at cost less depreciation. The Group’s capitalisation threshold is £5,000, such that fixed assets costing less than this amount are not capitalised and are therefore included in resources expended under the appropriate heading.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost less estimated residual value of each asset over its expected useful life, as follows:

2% straight line per Freehold buildings annum 10% straight line per Refurbishments annum Plant, equipment, 25% reducing fixture and fittings balance per annum 25% reducing Motor vehicles balance per annum

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset and is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.

When freehold land is disposed of, but sporting rights are retained the value of these rights is written down to £1 as they are not considered to have a residual or realisable value for the Group.

Freehold land is not depreciated.

At each reporting end date, the Group reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss.

1.9 Stock

Stock is stated at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Cost comprises direct materials and, where applicable, direct labour costs and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing the stock to their present

location and condition. Items held for distribution at no or nominal consideration are measured at the lower of replacement cost and cost.

Net realisable value is the estimated selling price less all estimated costs of completion and costs to be incurred in marketing, selling and distribution.

1.10 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held on call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank Overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities. During the year the Group had no bank overdrafts.

For the purpose of the cash flow statement, cash comprises cash in hand and short-term deposits.

1.11 Financial instruments

Financial instruments are recognised in the Group and Charity balance sheets when the Group or Charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

The League Against Cruel Sports Group has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method. Financial assets held at amortised cost comprise cash and bank in hand, together with trade and other debtors. Financial liabilities held at amortised cost comprise trade and other creditors. Financial assets and Financial liabilities classified as receivable or payable within one year are not amortised.

Investment in the subsidiary undertaking is held at cost less impairment.

1.12 Leases

Rentals incurred under operating leases are charged to the SOFA on a straight line basis over the period of the lease. Incentives are treated as income and are credited to the SOFA on a straight line basis over the period of the lease.

1.13 Employee pensions

The Group operates a defined contribution pension scheme. Contributions are charged in the accounts as they become payable in accordance with the rules of the scheme.

1.14 Value Added Tax

Value Added Tax is partially recoverable by the Group, and as such the irrecoverable portion of VAT is included as a cost in the SOFA and asset values.

1.15 Taxation

The League Against Cruel Sports charitable company is exempt from Corporation Tax on the grounds that it is a charity and all of its income is applied for charitable purposes.League Against Cruel Sport (UK) Limited is not operated for profit.

1.16 Debtors

Trade and other debtors are recognised at the amount due after any discount offered. Prepayments are valued at the amount prepaid net of any trade discounts.

1.17 Creditors

Creditors are recognised where the Group and Charity has a present obligation resulting from past events that will probably result in the transfer of funds to a

third party and the amount due to settle the obligation can be measured or estimated reliably. Creditors are normally recognised at the settlement amount allowing for any trade discounts.

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2. Donations and Legacies

	Unrestricted Funds £	Restricted Funds £	Total 2021 £	Total 2020 £
Legacies receivable	1,647,224	1,386	1,648,610	1,796,910
Donations andgifts	1,101,553	12,924	1,114,477	1,033,210
Grants receivable	72,459	-	72,459	143,354
Membershipfees	105,214	-	105,214	113,622
	2,926,450	14,310	2,940,760	3,087,096

4. Investment Income

	Unrestricted Funds £	Restricted Funds £	Total 2021 £	Total 2020 £
Interest receivable	11,544	-	11,544
Rental income	3,606	-	3,606
	15,150	-	15,150

2020 income includes restricted funds of £Nil Legacies receivable and £2,711 Donations and gifts.

At the end of the financial year, the Charity has been advised of a number of legacies which indicated the League as a beneficiary. These have not been included in the Statement of Financial Activities as the Charity’s final entitlement has not yet been established by the executors. The estimated values for these legacies amounts to approximately £1.7m (2020: £1.4m). Many of these legacies are residual legacies where the timing of receipt is uncertain.

Grants receivable relates to the Government Job Retention Scheme funding claimed during the year £67,621 (2020:£143,354) and other grants £4,838 (2020:£Nil).

3. Other Trading Activities

	Unrestricted Funds £	Restricted Funds £	Total 2021 £	Total 2020 £
Raffe and lotto ticket sales	91,896	-	91,896	90,224
Timber sales	4,856	-	4,856	7,524
Merchandise and other sales of goods	42,937	-	42,937	40,742
	139,689	-	139,689	138,490
There were no restricted funds received in 2020.

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5. Expenditure

----- Start of picture text -----
Direct Staff Direct Support Total Total
costs costs costs 2021 2020
£ £ £ £ £
RAISING FUNDS
Fundraising and publicity costs 157,664 74,130 81,095 312,889 277,195
Costs of trading activities 18,920 49,560 - 68,480 84,684
176,584 123,690 81,095 381,369 361,879
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
End Hunting with Dogs 645,665 252,398 314,194 1,212,257 1,110,689
End Shooting of Animals for ‘Sport’ 189,893 115,891 106,981 412,765 465,542
End Fighting of Animals for ‘Sport’ 41,303 31,018 25,302 97,623 140,719
Win Hearts and Minds 553,065 216,956 269,397 1,039,418 954,143
1,429,926 616,263 715,874 2,762,063 2,671,093
Total expenditure 1,606,510 739,953 796,969 3,143,432 3,032,972
----- End of picture text -----

Analysis of support costs

	Governance costs £	Staff costs £	Offce and admin. costs £	Total 2021 £	Total 2020 £
RAISING FUNDS
Fundraisingandpublicitycosts	2,223	40,294	38,578	81,095	69,738
Costs of tradingactivities	-	-	-	-	-
	2,223	40,294	38,578	81,095	69,738
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
End Huntingwith Dogs	8,612	156,116	149,466	314,194	279,432
End Shootingof Animals for ‘Sport’	2,932	53,156	50,893	106,981	117,123
End Fightingof Animals for ‘Sport’	693	12,572	12,037	25,302	35,403
Win Hearts and Minds	7,384	133,857	128,156	269,397	240,047
	19,621	355,701	340,552	715,874	672,005
Total expenditure	21,844	395,995	379,130	796,969	741,743

6. Employees

	2021 £	2020 £
STAFF COSTS
Wages and salaries	1,693,184	1,671,780
Social securitycosts	171,138	153,132
Otherpension costs	138,417	130,532
	2,002,739	1,955,444
	2021 Number	2020 Number
THE AVERAGE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES DURING THE YEAR WAS:
Fundraisingandpublicity	7	5
Charitable activities	43	43
Support	6	6
	56	54
	2021 Number	2020 Number
THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES WHOSE EMOLUMENTS EXCEEDS £60,000 IN THE YEAR WAS:
£60,001 - £70,000	2	2
£70,001 - £80,000	-	-
£80,001 - £90,000	-	1
£90,001 - £100,000	1	-

During the year a total of 7 (2020: 7) staff were recognised as key management personnel. At the year end there were 7 key management personnel in post.

The total remuneration and benefits received by senior management personnel in the year was £417,745 (2020: £405,894) and pension contributions paid by the Charity in respect of these employees during the year was £33,458 (2020: £32,212).

Trustees

None of the Trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any renumeration during the year (2020: £Nil). Three Trustees were reimbursed expenses relating to travel totalling £512 (2020: One Trustee reimbursed £102).

Support costs are allocated on the basis of % of time spent in proportion to direct costs. Governance costs includes statutory audit fees of £12,933 (2020: £11,975). Comparative 2020 expenditure is analysed in note 18.

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7. Group and Charity Fixed assets

----- Start of picture text -----
Office and
Freehold land Computer Motor
and buildings Equipment Vehicles Total
£ £ £ £
COST
At 1 January 2021 1,847,925 14,350 45,457 1,907,732
Additions 27,073 - - 27,073
Disposals - - - -
At 31 December 2021 1,874,998 14,350 45,457 1,934,805
DEPRECIATION AND IMPAIRMENT
At 1 January 2021 192,441 8,296 39,270 240,007
Charge for the year 26,714 6,054 1,546 34,314
Disposals - - - -
At 31 December 2021 219,155 14,350 40,816 274,321
NET BOOK VALUE
At 31 December 2021 1,655,843 - 4,641 1,660,484
At 31 December 2020 1,655,484 6,054 6,187 1,667,725
----- End of picture text -----

As at 31 December 2021 there were capital commitments of £Nil (2020: £7,308) not included within fixed assets.

8. Financial Instruments

Financial assets measured at amortised cost Financial liabilities measured at amortised cost Total interest income for fnancial assets held under amortised cost	Group 2021 £	2020 £	Charity 2021 £	2020 £
	2,537,524	2,617,505	2,485,779	2,565,653
	107,515	126,926	107,515	126,926
	15,150	27,621	11,543	24,015

For further details please refer to Accounting Policy note 1.11.

9. Stocks

	Group		Charity
	2021	2020	2021	2020
	£	£	£	£
Finishedgoods andgoods for resale	14,022	14,284	14,022	14,284

10. Debtors

	Group 2021 £	2020 £	Charity 2021 £	2020 £
Prepayments and accrued income	901,221	554,309	901,221	554,309
Amounts owed by groupundertakings	-	-	416	211
Tax recoverable	42,869	49,359	42,869	49,359
Other debtors	1,262	304	1,262	304
	945,352	603,972	945,768	604,183

Prepayments and accrued income include £43,750 (2020: £43,750) due after one year in respect of land held in trust for the League.

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11. Creditors: Amounts falling due within one year

	Group 2021 £	2020 £	Charity 2021 £	2020 £
Trade creditors	72,266	69,803	72,266	69,803
Accruals and deferred income	52,009	122,989	52,009	122,989
Other taxes and social security	754	14,836	754	14,836
Other creditors	2,728	2,350	2,728	2,350
	127,757	209,978	127,757	209,978

12. Pension costs

The Charity operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the Charity in an independently administered fund. The pension cost charge represents contributions payable by the Charity to the fund. Contributions payable by the Charity for the year amounted to £138,417 (2020: £130,532); as referred to in note 6.

13. Funds

The income funds of the Group and Charity include unrestricted and restricted funds comprising the following unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust for specific purposes:

Movements in funds

----- Start of picture text -----
Balance at 1 Balance at 31
January 2021 Income Expenditure Transfers December 2021
£ £ £ £ £
RESTRICTED FUNDS
Wentworth Sanctuary legacy 44,935 - (6,537) - 38,398
Wentworth Godalming office legacy 58,038 - (6,000) - 52,038
Greyhounds 13,000 - (2,511) - 10,489
Cove Down Sanctuary 7,942 - (6,210) - 1,732
Dog Fighting - 8,000 (3,000) - 5,000
Silent Enemy - 4,688 (4,688) - -
Other small restricted funds - 1,622 (237) - 1,385
Total Restricted funds 123,915 14,310 (29,183) - 109,042
UNRESTRICTED FUNDS
Designated funds - - - - -
General funds 4,140,922 3,081,289 (3,114,249) - 4,107,962
Total Unrestricted funds 4,140,922 3,081,289 (3,114,249) - 4,107,962
Total funds 4,264,837 3,095,599 (3,143,432) - 4,217,004
----- End of picture text -----

Restricted funds

The Wentworth legacies are restricted for use on the sanctuaries property at Baronsdown and the Godalming premises respectively.

The Greyhounds project is being funded by an individual supporter to enable us to undertake special investigations work into Greyhound puppy farming.

The Cove Down sanctuary project is in respect of funding received from the Lister Charitable Trust for development of the sanctuary; involving habitat restoration and rewilding on a protected area of land as a sanctuary for wildlife.

We received two major donations in the year in connection with developing our dog fighting campaign work.

Funding was received through a specific supporter appeal for our Silent Enemy campaign.

Other small restricted funds represents funding received towards charitable activities where the individual restricted funds total under £1,500 and their associated expenditure.

Designated funds

No funds have been designated at the end of 2021.

Comparative 2020 figures are detailed in Note 19.

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14. Analysis of net assets between funds

Unrestricted funds

	General funds £	Designated funds £	Restricted funds £	Total £
FUND BALANCES AT 31 DECEMBER 2021 ARE REPRESENTED BY:
Fixed assets	1,615,615	-	44,869	1,660,484
Current assets	2,620,104	-	64,173	2,684,277
Current liabilities	(127,757)	-	-	(127,757)
Non-current liabilities	-	-	-	-
	4,107,962	-	109,042	4,217,004

Comparative 2020 figures are detailed in Note 20.

15. Commitments under operating leases

At 31 December 2021 the Charity had lease payment commitments under non-cancellable operating leases as follows:

17. Investment in subsidiary

The investment of £12 represents 100% of the ordinary £10 share capital in League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited, the principle activity of which historically was to receive and administer legacy entitlements and manage its portfolio of land and buildings. League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited is a private company limited by shares registered in England and Wales.

In 2019 the Investment in subsidiary was revalued to £12 reflecting the transfer of all the fixed assets and most of the cash at bank assets from League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited to the parent charity.

The total income for the year ended 31 December 2021 of the League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited amounted to £Nil (2020: £Nil), expenditure totalled £312 (2020: £445). Net payments, cash and asset transfers totalling £Nil (2020: £Nil) have been made from League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited to its parent company, and registered charity, The League Against Cruel Sports which is treated as a gift aid donation.

As at 31 December 2021 League Against Cruel Sports (UK) Limited had fixed assets of £Nil (2020: £Nil), net current assets of £51,329 (2020: £51,641) and reserves of £51,317 (2020: £51,629). In 2021 it reported deficit of £312 (2020: Deficit £445).

Details of the Charity’s subsidiaries at 31 December 2021 are as follows:

Name of undertaking	Registered offce	Nature of business	Class of shares held	Percentage held	Percentage held
				Direct	Indirect
League Against Cruel Sports (UK)Limited	England and Wales	See above	Ordinary £1 shares	100.00	-

	Land and buildings	Land and buildings	Offce equipment	Offce equipment
	2021 £	2020 £	2021 £	2020 £
PAYMENTS DUE:
Within oneyear	-	-	8,321	2,180
Between two and fveyears	-	-	16,698	5,733
Over fveyears	-	-	-	-
	-	-	25,019	7,913

16. Related party transactions

There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2020: none).

Donations, memberships subscriptions, lottery plays and purchases of goods made by the Trustees in the year totalled £769 (2020: £781).

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18. Comparative 2020 Expenditure

19. Comparative 2020 Funds

Movement in funds

----- Start of picture text -----
Direct Staff Direct Support Total
costs costs costs 2020
£ £ £ £
RAISING FUNDS
Fundraising and publicity costs 130,900 76,557 69,738 277,195
Costs of trading activities 15,708 68,976 - 84,684
146,608 145,533 69,738 361,879
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
End Hunting with Dogs 665,247 166,010 279,432 1,110,689
End Shooting of Animals for ‘Sport’ 252,037 96,382 117,123 465,542
End Fighting of Animals for ‘Sport’ 66,129 39,187 35,403 140,719
Win Hearts and Minds 454,095 260,001 240,047 954,143
1,437,508 561,580 672,005 2,671,093
Total expenditure 1,584,116 707,113 741,743 3,032,972
----- End of picture text -----

Comparative 2020 Analysis of Support costs

	Governance costs £	Staff costs £	Offce and admin. costs £	Total 2020 £
RAISING FUNDS
Fundraisingandpublicitycosts	5,154	34,912	29,672	69,738
Costs of tradingactivities	-	-	-	-
	5,154	34,912	29,672	69,738
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
End Huntingwith Dogs	20,653	139,888	118,891	279,432
End Shootingof Animals for ‘Sport’	8,657	58,633	49,833	117,123
End Fightingof Animals for ‘Sport’	2,617	17,723	15,063	35,403
Win Hearts and Minds	17,742	120,171	102,134	240,047
	49,669	336,415	285,921	672,005
Total expenditure	54,823	371,327	315,593	741,743

Support costs are allocated on the basis of % of time spent in proportion to direct costs.

----- Start of picture text -----
Balance at 1 Balance at 31
January 2020 Income Expenditure Transfers December 2020
£ £ £ £ £
RESTRICTED FUNDS
Wentworth Sanctuary legacy 53,729 - (8,794) - 44,935
Wentworth Godalming office legacy 58,038 - - - 58,038
Links Research work 11,410 - (11,410) - -
Greyhounds 13,000 - - - 13,000
Cove Down Sanctuary 9,386 - (1,444) - 7,942
General Election 2019 (1,713) 2,061 (348) - -
Other small restricted funds - 650 (650) - -
Total Restricted funds 143,850 2,711 (22,646) - 123,915
UNRESTRICTED FUNDS
Designated funds:
Programmes and fundraising growth 390,000 - - (390,000) -
General funds 3,510,752 3,250,496 (3,010,326) 390,000 4,140,922
Total Unrestricted funds 3,900,752 3,250,496 (3,010,326) - 4,140,922
Total funds 4,044,602 3,253,207 (3,032,972) - 4,264,837
----- End of picture text -----

20. Comparative 2020 Analysis of net assets between funds

Unrestricted funds

	General funds £	Designated funds £	Restricted funds £	Total £
FUND BALANCES AT 31 DECEMBER 2020 ARE REPRESENTED BY:
Fixed assets	1,616,421	-	51,304	1,667,725
Current assets	2,734,479	-	72,611	2,807,090
Current liabilities	(209,978)	-	-	(209,978)
Non-current liabilities	-	-	-	-
	4,140,922	-	123,915	4,264,837

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The League Against Cruel Sports corporate directory

The information shown below is correct as of 1 January 2021 to 11 April 2022 the date of signing the accounts

Trustees

Tim Holmes (Chair) John Hughes (Honorary Treasurer) Ashleigh Brown Alan Tapp Astrid Clifford Caroline Hawkins

Senior Management Team

Chief Executive Andy Knott, MBE Deputy Chief Executive Chris Luffingham Director of Scotland Robbie Marsland Director of Development & Engagement Emma Smith Director of Investigations Martin Sims Director of Finance Neal Soleil Director of People & Culture Kelly Hack Charity Number 1095234 Company Number 04037610 Company Secretary Andy Knott Principal and registered office New Sparling House Holloway Hill Godalming GU7 1QZ

Principal professional advisors

Auditor

Bankers

Legal Advisors

Haysmacintyre LLP 10 Queen Street Place London EC4R 1AG

The Co-Operative Bank Plc 1 Balloon Street Manchester M60 1GP

Brabners LLP Horton House Exchange Flags Liverpool L2 3YL

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League Against Cruel Sports New Sparling House Holloway Hill Godalming GU7 1QZ

01483 524 250

[e-mail] www.league.org.uk

The League Against Cruel Sports is a registered charity in England and Wales (no. 1095234) and Scotland (no. SC045533), and is registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee (no. 04037610).

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