Birds: Pest Control

(asked on 10th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many individual applications for wildlife management licencees for control of (a) jackdaws, (bi) jays and (c) rooks within (a) European protected sites and (b) buffer zones for those sites were granted by Natural England in the latest period for which information is available.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 16th June 2020

In 2020 Natural England has refused 19 such individual licences for jackdaws, 13 for jays and 11 for rooks within European protected sites and a 300 metre buffer zone around them.

Natural England has not granted any such licences for jackdaws or rooks this year but has granted one for jays.

Before granting such an individual licence Natural England requires evidence that:

  • there is a genuine problem to resolve or need to satisfy, for which a statutory licensing purpose applies
  • there are no satisfactory alternatives, including non-lethal solutions having been tried or considered and shown to be ineffective
  • the licensed action will contribute to resolving the problem or meeting the need
  • the action to be licensed is proportionate to the problem or need
  • the licenced action will not have an adverse effect on the conservation status of any species or habitat
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