In September DEFRA released a 'call for evidence' to inform the next issue of General Licences. It is imperative that all those who use these licences, and indeed anyone with an interest in wildlife conservation, responds.
Previously the Countryside Alliance publicised the link to the official Government survey. Since then, our partners at the Game Conservation and Wildlife Trust have developed their own survey which is both simpler and produces more detailed evidence. DEFRA have acknowledged that this survey will produce high quality evidence and have agreed to accept the responses. The survey takes an average of 10 minutes to complete, as opposed to an hour for the DEFRA one. In addition, this survey will anonymise responses, whereas this is not guaranteed from the DEFRA survey. You do not have to fill in a response for each species listed, just for the ones that you have experience of.
You can find the GWCT survey here.
Please be as detailed as possible in your response. If you can mention specific species that have been effected, or indeed the number of predated nests, this will enhance the quality of the evidence when DEFRA come to review it.