A catalogue of confusion
David Frost laments the continued uncertainty and flawed administration around the general licences
This article was intended to be about the new English general licences due to come into force on 1 August. That they’ve now been delayed to 1 January 2021 is an indication of the shambles that has surrounded licensing over the past 18 months, so we’ll look at that instead.
Until 2007, the responsibility for issuing general licences for the control of pest birds lay with the Department for Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs
(DEFRA); there were three principal licences each just two pages long and covering a range of species. Natural England
(NE) assumed responsibility in that year and the licences blossomed until, by 2019, they were more than 11 pages long for each species. NE’s approach has become precautionary, secretive and, occasionally, unlawful (as evidenced by Ricky McMorn’s successful judicial review in 2015 in relation to buzzard licences). You can get an idea of the mindset from Dave Slater’s piece about NE in the August issue of Sporting Gun.
In April 2019, NE suddenly revoked the three main licences causing consternation and uproar among the many farmers, conservationists gamekeepers, and land managers who rely on them at such a critical time of year. Chaos ensued as NE attempted to issue individual licences before coming up with hopelessly complicated and impractical general licences. People were being given licences to control more birds than they had asked for and in some cases were effectively being given authority to issue licences to other people. There seemed to be a lack of legal knowledge among the licence drafters and no real understanding of the problem. Licence holders struggled to understand what they were permitted to do.
Defra takes control
At this point Defra, then under the stewardship of Michael Gove, resumed control and issued better licences. They were, however, different to those of yore in one major respect: they did not apply in or within 300 metres of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) and similar conservation areas. These are the very areas established to protect endangered species and where pest bird control is of the greatest importance, especially during and immediately before the breeding season. The problem is that NE has not carried out the assessments it should have done for SSSIs.
Volume
NE retained responsibility for issuing individual licences for these areas. As of 17 June, 1,200 applications had been received. Of these 73 were issued, more than 400 refused and the rest were still pending. NE seemed surprised at the extent to which general licences are used and appeared incapable of dealing with the volume. Not only that but many of the refusals were for incomprehensible reasons and there is no right of appeal. It was too little, too late to save many vulnerable ground-nesting birds and farm livestock.
The shooting organisations have told the Environment Minister that all licences should revert to Defra. The Countryside Alliance is encouraging its members to lobby their MPs to achieve this. If you’re not sure what the problem is watch the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation blog: gamekeepersblog.com/ wildlife-licensing-crisis
We must hope that Defra has listened carefully to what the shooting organisations have been saying and consults them before issuing new licences for 2021.
“There seemed to be a lack of legal knowledge among the licence drafters”