Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure Natural England has adequate resources to assess applications to the interim licensing regime for the 2021 to release game birds on or near European protected sites.
Defra is working closely with Natural England to ensure that they have the capacity and capability to assess individual applications for the forthcoming interim licensing regime for pheasants and red-legged partridges on and near European Protected Sites. We will be launching a public consultation on the interim licencing regime shortly.
Natural England is very aware of the timeframes involved and the need for decisions to be made promptly to align with the shooting industry's annual calendar of activity.