Summary of wildlife licences issued by Natural England in 2022
Data on the number and type of licences granted, and the updated list of licences to control birds from 2014 to 2022.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Some species of wildlife have legal protection. Natural England issues licences on behalf of the government that allow activities affecting protected species that are otherwise prohibited.
Some licences allow lethal control. Before issuing a licence, Natural England carefully considers the circumstances of a case, the justification for it and the impact on the species as a whole.
Wildlife licences issued in 2022
The first document shows the number of wildlife licences issued in 2022 for:
- mitigation licences for European protected species
- class licences
- science and conservation
- species management
This year, we’ve made changes to how we present this data to make it more accessible.
Licences issued for the control of birds 2014 to 2022
The second document shows the number of birds, nests and eggs covered on licences that may include lethal control between 2014 and 2022.
You can find out more information about data by reading our blog.
This document is an update to the licences issued for the control of birds 2014 to 2021.
Where an applicant has applied for an amendment to their licence, this will supersede the previous version of the licence. As a result, there may be some differences in the data provided last year compared to this year.
Where a licence reference number appears twice, this does not mean an applicant can control twice the number of birds. To analyse the data accurately, only one instance of the bird species and licence purpose should be used for each unique reference number or site.
This document also includes a tab to show the number of birds, nests and eggs covered on individual licences as a result of the revocation of the Natural England general licence. These licences include a maximum figure for control across several methods on one licence. This does not mean there is a large number of birds to be controlled, as it’s not a cumulative running total.
For all bird licences, annual returns show that the actual numbers affected are significantly less than the numbers covered on the licences. Because of the complexity of return information, it’s not possible to publish these figures.
This document now also contains data on all piscivorous area licences and falconry quarry licences covering the previous seven years. Improvements to how we mobilise our data has allowed us to include these statistics this year in line with our commitment to transparency.