New General Licences are issued by DEFRA

DEFRA has now finalised the new General Licences, which will come into force when the current licences end, on the 1st January 2021. The new licences represent a considerable improvement, and we believe that they are legally robust enough to avoid further legal challenge from Wild Justice. We are pleased to see that DEFRA have responded to our lobbying effort, and have issued these licences themselves, rather than allowing Natural England to do so, who have proved incapable of overseeing a credible wildlife licencing system.

While the licences remain lengthy and unnecessarily complex, they are workable. Importantly, DEFRA have resisted calls from extremist groups to stop almost all bird control under General Licence. We will continue to work with DEFRA to ensure that these remaining creases are ironed out in subsequent licences.

The 3 new General Licences can be found here:

1. Conservation Licence
2. Public Health & Safety Licence
3. Serious Damage Licence

Conditions for trapping wild birds under General Licence can be found here.