Scotland’s statutory nature conservation agency, NatureScot, has finally started its species licensing review.
The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2021-2022 included a commitment to, ‘Review the wider species licensing system with a view to ensuring that the law is being applied correctly and that lethal control is only licensed where the conditions required for such a licence are demonstrably being met. The review will also assess the potential to apply the principle of full cost recovery to species licensing and the introduction of a public register of licenses to improve transparency‘.
This was also included in the shared policy agreement between the Scottish Greens and the SNP in 2021.
NatureScot issues approx 90 different types of licences each year to cover all sort of activities that otherwise would be illegal, e.g. Disturbance licences to Raptor Study Group members whose nest monitoring activities would otherwise disturb Schedule 1 raptor species, individual and general licences to kill various wild birds to prevent damage to livestock and crops and to protect public health and safety, licences to use certain traps to kill wild mammals, licences to kill mountain hares to prevent damage to trees, licences to permit the hunting of mammals with more than two dogs, and of course the imminent licences that will be required for grouse moor management under the new Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024.
NatureScot has just published its Terms of Reference (see below) for its Species Licensing Review and there are three main objectives:
- Ensure that the law is being applied correctly and that lethal control is only licensed where the conditions required for such a licence are demonstrably being met;
- Assess the potential to apply the principle of full cost recovery to species licensing;
- Assess the potential to introduce a public register of licenses to improve transparency, bearing in mind data protection and safety of licence holders.
Objective #1 is obviously important and follows on from significant reviews of the General Licences in England, Wales and Northern Ireland after legal challenges from Wild Justice.
Objective #2 became a prominent topic of discussion during the debates on the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Bill – it was widely argued by conservationists that grouse moor owners should pay a fee for their licences, not only to cover the admin costs of issuing the licences but especially to cover subsequent compliance monitoring, which should not come at a cost to the public purse.
Objective #3 is interesting – a searchable public register of licences would be useful, especially if licence holders are required to provide annual licence returns (e.g. how many red grouse were lawfully shot in a particular area in a given season?).
The anticipated timetable for the review is provided in the Terms of Reference and it’s suggested that a report will be ready for external review in October 2024.
The Terms of Reference can be read/downloaded here:
Raptor Persecution UK 