Statutory guidance

White-clawed crayfish: licence to catch them to carry out maintenance (CL23)

Register for a licence to catch and relocate white-clawed crayfish for maintenance work on water bodies and find out how to report your actions.

• From: Natural England
• Published: 1 January 2016
• Last updated: 1 January 2024 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

Registration form (CL23a)

MS Word Document, 53.8 KB

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Licence to catch and relocate white-clawed crayfish to maintain water bodies (licence CL23)

HTML

Report your actions (LR23)

ODT, 18.7 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

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Details

This licence allows you to catch and relocate white-clawed crayfish (also called Atlantic stream crayfish) between 1 July and 30 September to maintain water bodies, such as rivers, lakes, ponds and canals.

You can catch white-clawed crayfish by:

• hand
• hand net
• crayfish trap (you must also get permission from the Environment Agency before using a trap)

Register to use this licence

You must register with Natural England before you can use licence CL23. Send your completed registration form (CL23a) by email or post to:

Wildlife licensing

Natural England
Horizon House
Deanery Road
Bristol
BS1 5AH

Email wildlife@naturalengland.org.uk

Telephone 020 8026 1089

You don’t need to register if you have a personal survey licence.

How to report your actions

You must report your actions taken using this licence each year. Send your completed report form (LR23) to Natural England by 31 January each year using the details on the form.

You must also submit details of any crayfish found to the Biological Records Centre.

Licence renewal

By returning your report form each year you’ve renewed your licence. You should check for any amendments to the terms and conditions of use on the latest published version of this licence.

Published 1 January 2016
Last updated 1 January 2024 + show all updates

1. 1 January 2024

   There is an update to this licence for 1 January 2024.

2. 1 January 2023

   Annual licence update, valid from 1 January 2023.

3. 1 January 2022

   Annual licence update, valid from 1 January 2022.

4. 1 January 2021

   Annual licence update.

5. 19 November 2020

   Accessible version of licence added - HTML.

6. 24 August 2020

   Accessible version of the licence added - HTML.

7. 6 August 2020

   Replaced licence registration form CL23a with updated version.

8. 1 January 2020

   Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2020

9. 1 January 2019

   Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2019. Replaced registration form with updated version.

10. 1 January 2018

    Replaced licence with new version issued 1 January 2018

11. 1 January 2017

    Annual licence update 2017.

12. 1 January 2016

    First published.