Defra extends general licences until end of the year
Defra has extended six general licences that were due to expire at the end of July. The licences are to be reissued on a temporary basis, as they were earlier in the year, and will be valid from 1 August to 31 December.
Defra has confirmed a new licensing regime will come into force from the beginning of next year following the findings of a long-term review, which was instigated in June last year and is still ongoing.
George Eustice, Secretary of State for the Environment, said: “It is vital that we have a robust long-term licensing system which balances the needs of users and our wildlife. Our general licensing review has made significant progress, however more time is needed to ensure that we have carefully considered all of the relevant evidence, and to fully develop a general licensing solution for our protected sites.”
The announcement has been welcomed by the prominent shooting organisations, albeit with some caveats.
Glynn Evans, BASC’s head of game and gundogs, said: “While BASC continues to call for a fit for purpose and future-proofed licensing structure as soon as possible, this announcement today will reassure our members that Defra is taking the task seriously and will provide a degree of certainty for the rest of this year.”
The Countryside Alliance, National Gamekeeper’s Organisation, and The
Moorland Association, recently published a joint paper entitled Wildlife Licensing in England: Chaos, Crises and Cure that excoriated Natural England’s handling of the licensing regime. The organisations have called for Defra to take back control of the licensing in-house as they have no confidence in Natural England’s ability.
Defra temporarily took back control of licensing in May last year following the confusion and chaos that resulted in the revocation of the licences at the end of April 2019 by Natural England following a legal challenge by Wild Justice. Natural England was heavily criticised at the time for the way it handled the situation and withdrew the licences with minimum notice, which resulted in Michael Gove, secretary of state at the time, taking back control. The ensuing 15 months has done little to quell the criticism of Natural England, as the aforementioned paper from three of the shooting organisations shows.
The current licences – GL26, GL28, GL31, GL34, GL35 and GL36 – will remain in force until the end the year and no action is required by licence users. Mr Eustice said that Defra intends to publish details of the new licences in November to enable people to become familiar with their requirements before they come into force on 1 January. • Natural England explains its reasoning behind licensing decisions on page 8.