Natural England - Wildlife Management and Licensing Service

Wildlife Management and Licensing Service

The Wildlife Management and Licensing Service has three main roles:

provide advice on wildlife management - see our leaflets and frequently asked wildlife questions
issue licences - download our application forms
assist with enforcement and inspection - including suspected wildlife poisoning .

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 .

Latest news

(29 June 2009) New guidance on “disturbance” and “current use” in the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.The Wildlife Management & Licensing Service has produced new guidance on interpretation of “current use” and “disturbing” in the context of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 in relation to the definition of a badger sett and the offence of disturbing a badger whilst it is occupying a sett. See the badgers page for details.
(09 June 2009) Natural England has revised the EPS Mitigation Licensing guidance. ‘How to get a licence ’ has changed to take account of customer feedback and staff ideas for improvements. View a short summary of what has changed.
(09 June 2009) Non-native and former native species web-page update – the Wildlife Management & Licensing Service ‘non-native species’ web-pages now give more information on this area of licensing, which includes reintroductions of former native species, and tells you how you can comment on current reintroduction applications.
(14 May 2009) EPS Mitigation Licences – Is your licensed activity or development affected by the current economic downturn? Natural England has produced some guidance for developers .
(28 April 2009) It is a myth that applications proposing ‘over-mitigation’ or ‘over compensation’ will stand a better chance of obtaining a Great crested newt mitigation licence. Natural England’s latest guidance addresses this misconception.
(20 February 2009) New guidance has been launched for applicants for EPS Mitigation licences on the requirements for Master Plans for proposals involving phased and multiplot developments. This guidance deals specifically with applications affecting Great crested newts, but the principles can be applied to applications affecting other species.
(19 February 2009) Natural England announces streamlining of the process for EPS Mitigation Licensing.
Read the notice for more detail. To coincide with this change, we also launch a comprehensive new guidance document for applicants, How to get a Licence, a new Reasoned Statement template, and new versions of the application forms. Applications on the new forms will be accepted and dealt with under the new process from 16 March 2009. Until then, please use the existing forms.
(30 January 2009) Defra announces changes to the Habitats Regulations and Offshore Marine Regulations.
These changes clarify the wording of the regulations and any effect on landowners and sea users will be minimal. For more information see Defra website.
(7 January 2009) Natural England calls for voluntary restraint on licensed shooting during the severe cold weather spell.
For the duration of the severe cold weather period we are currently experiencing, Natural England is requesting that its licensees and members of the public show restraint to avoid activities that may cause unnecessary disturbance to wildfowl and other water birds already suffering as a result of the cold weather. Similar requests have been made to the public by the RSPB, BASC and the BTO.
(11 December 2008) Natural England has launched a consultation on general licences.
The closing date for responses is 13 March 2009. More information
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: