Great crested newts: survey or research level 2 licence (CL09)
Register for a licence to survey great crested newts for research, conservation or development projects.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This licence allows you to survey great crested newts using:
- pitfall traps - you must tell Natural England before you use these traps
- hand
- nets
- torches
- aquatic funnel traps (including bottle traps)
You cannot use box traps.
You must release all great crested newts you capture as soon as you’ve finished examining them.
You must apply for an individual licence or a level 1 licence for survey, research or conservation work not covered by this licence.
For development work affecting great crested newts, you must apply for a mitigation licence.
Using pitfall traps
When using pitfall traps you must:
- tell Natural England at least 5 working days before installing fences and traps using the Pitfall traps: notify Natural England before use form (A29-3) on this page
- only use a maximum 20 metre fence line and 15 pitfall traps per site
- avoid obstructing or significantly disrupting natural migration patterns
- check pitfall traps at least once a day between 6am and 11am
- make sure fence and trap designs comply with guidelines
- not use pitfall traps over the winter
- not ring-fence ponds
- not leave fences in place for more than 20 days
Register with Natural England
Before you can use this licence, you must register with Natural England using the registration form for a class licence.
What you need to pay
It costs £80 to register for a new CL09 licence.
It costs £35 a year to continue your registration.
You must declare the intended use of the licence on your registration form. This will determine if you need to pay, such as to survey great crested newts for development projects.
Natural England will refund unsuccessful applications.
Read the terms and conditions for paying for a wildlife licence.
When you do not need to pay
You do not need to pay if the licence is used for:
- voluntary purposes - any work you do is unpaid and you are registered with an organisation or charity as a volunteer
- conservation, science or research purposes, and research related to the protected species is carried out by a student or employee of an academic institution or research body
How to pay
You can pay using a bank card. Follow the GOV.UK Pay link on the registration form.
References
You usually need to complete a reference to support a survey or research licence form when you register for this licence if you:
- have not held a licence for the species or a similar species for the last 3 years
- have a licence but want to add new methods
Report action taken
You need to complete a survey return form between 1 and 31 October each year, even if you’ve taken no action or did not find target species. You’ll need the names of any accredited agents who carried out the surveys on your behalf.
You should only complete and submit a survey return form between 1 and 31 October. If you need to submit it outside these dates (for exceptional reasons only) email wildlife.scicons@naturalengland.org.uk
You must report your actions from 1 October to 30 September. For each site, you must record:
- the survey location (10 figure Ordnance Survey grid reference and what3words
- the number of surveys taken
- the start and end dates of each survey
- if you found great crested newt eggs
- if you did not find great crested newts
- the highest number of juveniles or adult great crested newts you found
- the purpose of your survey
You must also send your results to the Local Record Centre. You can do this by recording your results on the iRecord website or contacting your Local Record Centre.
Continue your registration
You can use the survey return form to continue your registration. It costs £35 a year to continue your registration.
Updates to this page
Last updated 1 January 2024 + show all updates
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There is an update to this licence for 1 January 2024.
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Annual licence update, valid from 1 January 2023.
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Page updated: You should only complete and submit a survey return form between 1 and 31 October. If you need to submit it outside these dates (for exceptional reasons only) email wildlife.scicons@naturalengland.org.uk
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Added the link to the survey return form. You should only complete the survey return form between 1 and 31 October. If you need to submit it outside these dates (for exceptional reasons only) email wildlife.scicons@naturalengland.org.uk
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Edited the section under 'Report action taken' - you must complete the survey return form between 1 and 31 October.
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Annual licence update, valid from 1 January 2022.
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From 1 October, you will need to pay £80 to register for a licence, unless you are exempt.
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Added 'including informing development projects' to the 'overview' paragraph of the licence.
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Annual licence update.
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Added accessible version of the licence - HTML.
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Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2020
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Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2019
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Registration form A29-1 added.
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Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2018
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Annual licence update 2017.
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Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2016.
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Added updated class licence. New version valid from 1 January to 31 December 2015.
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First published.