Natural England have published a bulletin outlining some small changes to the General Licences for wild bird control, GL 40 - 42 as they take responsibility for the licences from Defra for 2026.
GWCT’s head of education Matt Goodall said that Natural England has engaged with GWCT and wider stakeholders, and it is helpful that Natural England have sought to provide early clarity to the sector. The light touch review has been mostly positive, and we are especially pleased to see recognition of the important role that predation management plays in nature recovery.
The GWCT runs courses to update and train practitioners in predation management, with courses planned for 2026 which will cover changes to legislation and best practice. For more information and to book on a course, please email the Advisory team.
The new licences issued by Natural England will be valid for a 12-month period, from the 1st of January 2026 to the 31st of December 2026, rather than the 24-month period Defra issued the current licences for back in 2024.
There is a change to the list of birds which can be protected under GL40. The list previously only included red or amber-listed species but has been reviewed to include some green-listed species, including Red Grouse. This review is based on expert opinion and the recognition that the favourable status of certain species can depend on continued predation management.
There are also measures to better control the risk of Avian Influenza transmission. One such measure is the inclusion of a condition that users must avoid excessive disturbance of certain species or types of birds associated with protected sites. However, this condition does not specifically prohibit licensed activity in any location at any time. There are also expected to be small changes to the safe working distances to avoid disturbance to certain bird species on and near European sites. Therefore, we expect to see small changes to the buffer zones of some European sites.
Finally, again to better control the risk of Avian Influenza transmission, there will be a note added to GL33 stating that decoy birds must be registered on the poultry register.
Download the Natural England bulletin.