Senior lawyers also predicted that the level of proof required for a successful prosecution would be difficult to obtain.

Photographs or a video of riders chasing a fox or deer would be needed to prove that unlawful hunting had taken place.

Alastair McWhirter, the Association of Chief Police Officers spokesman on hunting with dogs, said last night that prosecutions would go ahead only if people admitted that they were hunting or if an animal were seen during a chase.

In a statement which will come as blow to supporters of the ban, Mr McWhirter said: “It is not an offence to wear red or pink coats or jackets, it is not an offence to exercise hounds or keep up traditions of using horns or meeting for a ride on horseback on private land.

“Unless someone owns up, you need a wild mammal in the picture to show that someone has committed an offence.”

However, Mr McWhirter later added: “We would enforce it to the best of our ability.”

The ban comes into force on February 19, ten days before the end of the foxhunting season. Deer hunting on Exmoor will continue into April.

The Countryside Alliance formally lodged a legal challenge in the High Court yesterday over use of the Parliament Act 1949 to force it through.

Chief constables believe that the law will be tested in a way that has not been seen since the introduction of the breathalyser in 1967. The new law does not even include a definition of hunting as an activity.

Peter Neyroud, the Chief Constable of Thames Valley, said: “Enforcement is not going to be easy.”

Chief Superintendent Rick Naylor, president of the Superintendents’ Association, said that there would be problems with forces having to deal with mass disobedience.

Leading criminal lawyers agreed that a ban would be difficult for police to enforce.

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