Natural England - Wildlife Management and Licensing Service

Wildlife Management and Licensing Service

The Wildlife Management and Licensing Service has three main roles:

What we do not cover

Site map - try this if you cannot easily find what you need.

To read more about our work see our leaflet Wildlife Management and Licensing - Balancing the needs of people and wildlife.

All of our guidance, best practice guides and information relating to Wildlife Management and Licensing is given in the List of Regulatory Guidance, Best Practice and Information excel document. Each entry provides a link to the documents. Publication of this list is part of the Government’s commitment to the Code of Practice on Guidance on Regulation.

Seasonal tips

***Great crested newts in winter and cessation of trapping till spring.***
As we have now entered the winter period great crested newt capture will have stopped. Natural England advises that pitfall traps are closed once newts begin to hibernate (generally after the first frosts) and re-opened in suitable weather conditions in the spring when newts become active again above ground. Although some newts may become active during the winter period, their behaviour is unpredictable and many individuals will remain in hibernation sites unavailable for capture. Furthermore, strong directional movements, which are best for trapping, are much less common during this period.

Pitfall trapping over the winter also has welfare implications for both target, and non-target, species that may become caught in traps. Any animal caught in a pitfall trap is protected under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the operator has a duty of care to ensure that captured animals do not endure suffering whilst in captivity. Natural England will not therefore, licence the capture of great crested newts over the winter, even during bouts of milder weather.

Latest news

  • (12 March 2010)White-nose syndrome in bats. Following the positive identification of G. destructans on a bat in France, the WNS guidance for UK Bat Workers has been revised to include sampling techniques and a revised surveillance form. A copy of the revised guidelines is available on the BCT website. As a precautionary measure, all UK bat workers undertaking hibernation checks are asked to follow the decontamination procedure after each site visit (contained in Appendix IV of BCT’s White-nose Syndrome: Guidelines for Bat workers).

  • (26 January 2010) Revised guidance on over mitigation has been added to the Natural England Website - Dispelling the myths: providing unnecessary “over-mitigation/compensation” will not help to secure a Natural England European Protected Species mitigation licence.

  • (21 January 2010) On 8th January 2010, Natural England called for restraint to avoid activities that will cause unnecessary disturbance to birdlife already suffering as a result of the cold weather. Conditions have improved, birds have largely recovered over the past few days. The period of voluntary restraint has ended. Natural England thanks all those who offered their cooperation and participated in reporting conditions.

  • (14 January 2010) A revised Great crested newt method statement has been added to our website -GCN WML-14-2.xls.
    The format of the survey section within this method statement template is currently being revised and is likely to be added to the website toward the end of February or beginning of March 2010.  Please always down load the latest version of the method statement template from our licence application pages to ensure the most up to date version is being used.

  • (8 January 2010) England calls for voluntary restraint on licensed shooting during the severe cold weather spell
    In 1983, an alerting system and its criteria were agreed by conservation agencies for the voluntary and statutory suspension of shooting and disturbing waterbirds during periods of severely cold weather. This system is explained on the JNCC website at: http://www.jncc.gov.uk/page-2894

    It is recognised that at times of severe cold weather, disturbance through e.g. certain types of licensed action can add to the physical stress that birds are already suffering due to reduced feeding opportunities from frozen ground, etc. and that such additive disturbance can lead to increased mortality.

    For the duration of the severe cold weather we are experiencing, Natural England is asking those licensees, with licences allowing the shooting of wildfowl and other waterbirds, to voluntarily suspend their shooting activities. Licences will remain valid and are not being revoked at this time. This request does not apply to other licensed activities.

    Queries can be emailed to severe.weather@naturalengland.org.uk.

  • (7 January 2010) European Protected Species Applications
    Due to the adverse weather conditions and resulting staff shortages, there may be some delay in processing of applications. However, Natural England are working as quickly as possible to ensure we meet the needs and expectations of our customers.

  • (23 December 2009) Natural England has now published the 2010 series of General Licences issued under wildlife legislation. The licences incorporate changes announced in September following a public consultation, therefore we strongly recommend that those intending to rely on the General licences read them to ensure they understand and can comply with the terms and conditions.

  • (15 December 2009) Change to 'Experience in bat mitigation: Guidance for ecologists' pdf document. Natural England has updated its guidance on experience required for those applying for bat licenses (mitigation), would applicants please ensure they read this new guidance.

  • (30 September 2009) Natural England has published a summary of the responses to the consultation on General Licences issued under wildlife legislation. View the summary and the announcement of the decisions we have reached.

Additional guidance for survey and mitigation licence applicants
Over the last few weeks we have launched some new guidance for our customers applying for survey and European protected species mitigation licences:

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