Natural England and General Licences

WILD JUSTICE LAUNCHES THEIR FIRST LEGAL CHALLENGE
Today Wild Justice launches our first legal challenge to a public body: we argue that the General Licences that 'permit' the unlimited killing of a list of wild birds are unlawful. We are seeking a judicial review of Natural England's decision to issue General Licences (GL04, GL05 and GL06) on 1 January this year. We have asked NE to admit the unlawful nature of these licences and to promise not to issue such licences in future.

Birds such as Carrion Crows, Rooks, Magpies, Woodpigeons, Jackdaws, Jays and two species of parakeet can be killed without applying for a licence, without having to justify why the action is necessary, without having to explain why alternative non-lethal measures such as scaring or proofing are ineffective or impracticable, and without having to report on how many birds are killed. All a person needs to do to ‘qualify’ to kill unlimited numbers of these birds is to claim to have read and understood the relevant General Licence. This, in our view, amounts to casual killing.

Wild Justice believes, on the basis of our legal advice, this system is unlawful despite the fact that it has been in existence for decades and has 'authorised' the killing of millions of birds. We contend that it is the licensing authority’s (Natural England's) legal responsibility to satisfy itself that killing these birds is an appropriate last resort. However, in the General Licences issued on 1 January 2019 Natural England ducks its responsibility and instead places the decision-making completely in the hands of the General Licence user.

We wrote to Natural England on the day that Wild Justice launched - 13 February. Natural England should have responded in two weeks but instead took four weeks. The response we received on Wednesday afternoon was both muddled and inadequate. We are now preparing the legal papers to seek judicial review.

We are not asking for the 2019 General Licences to be withdrawn, but rather that Natural England does not issue further General Licences and instead develops a legal system for regulating and monitoring the killing of birds if lethal control is absolutely necessary as a last resort.

We see the General Licence system as a clear example of how wildlife killing is poorly regulated in the UK. The system is lax and allows gamekeepers, farmers and others to kill birds without proper oversight or regulation. Natural England, and potentially other agencies in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland should have a better system in place if lethal killing of birds is to be lawful.

We need your help to take this case. Our legal advice is that we have a clear and winnable case. But legal action costs money and we now need to raise £36,000 in 30 days so that we can take this case to court. Please help us reform the legal system affecting wildlife killing by donating to our CrowdJustice crowdfunding page.