Bird licence renewals for 2020

Certain licences for bird management were renewed (class licences by Natural England and general licences by DEFRA) as of 1st January 2020.

Notable renewals, relevant to public health pest controllers, for 2020 are:

Class licences (Natural England)

• Birds: licence to catch them on food premises (CL03)
• Birds: licence to kill or take them for air safety purposes (CL12)

General licences (note that you can use the following general licences until 29 February 2020. They are now Defra licences, rather than Natural England, but the content of them has not changed.)

• Woodpigeons: licence to kill or take them to prevent serious damage to crops (GL31)
• Canada geese: licence to kill or take them for public health and safety (GL28)
• Carrion crows: licence to kill or take them to prevent serious damage to livestock (GL26)

Please click here to see all licence documents and updates, so that you are operating within the law for 2020.

The DEFRA general licences that were published on 14th June 2019 remain in place and are due to be updated by the 29th February 2020. They remain as ‘kill or take wild birds to conserve wild birds and to conserve flora and fauna (GL34)’, ‘kill or take wild birds to preserve public health or public safety (GL35)’, ‘kill or take wild birds to prevent serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, fisheries or inland waters (GL36)’.

Note: For those involved in edible dormouse Glis glis management, the Edible dormice: licence to trap them (CL02) has been renewed for 2020.