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NRW's general licence GL004
We need your
help to clarify the conditions under which it is lawful to kill Carrion
Crows, Magpies, Jackdaws and Jays in Wales under the existing, live,
general licence GL004.
The story so far:
Wild Justice was given permission to challenge the lawfulness of
Natural Resources Wales's general licences. Our case was heard in
December and judgment was handed down in January. We did not convince
the judge, Justice Jarman, that NRW's licences were unlawful but he made
it clear, on the basis of sworn testimony by NRW that there were
important constraints on the timing of use of the licences. In
particular,
and of greatest importance to us, the judge made it clear that it would
be unlawful to rely on GL004 to kill the relevant species except in
certain months. This important constraint in not widely known or
understood.
We met NRW staff online to discuss this matter and they refused to add any clarification of this issue to the NRW website. We wrote to NRW's Chair asking what action NRW would take on this matter and have had no response (not even an acknowledgement of our letter).
NRW appears
to be happy to have issued a licence which permits unlimited killing of
birds, allegedly for conservation purposes, to have given sworn evidence
to a court that this licence has serious and important limits to its
applicability, but not to make those limits clear. That is, we believe,
shockingly poor practice by a regulator.
What you might wish to do:
you may wish to ask NRW to clarify the conditions which apply to their
existing licence GL004. You may wish to use that licence to kill birds
and are not sure of when it would and wouldn't be lawful. You may wish
to know if you see others killing the four species named above,
allegedly for conservation purposes, in which months it is legal. You
may wish to understand the non-lethal steps that you or
others must take before lethal control is lawful. You may want to know
what information NRW would like to receive of breaches of the licence
conditions and how you should report these. You may wish to know why NRW
lists a large number of species of bird that have never nested in Wales
as being protected by licence GL004. You may wish to know on what
scientific basis NRW believes that Jackdaw and Jay have conservation
impacts on any bird species of conservation concern in Wales. You might
want to
say that you have looked for the answers to your query on the NRW
website but can't find them. But we would ask you, at least, to ask NRW
for urgent clarification on which of the remaining months of 2021 it is
lawful to kill Magpie, Jay, Carrion Crow and Jackdaw under GL004 in
Wales.
In the absence of a generic clarification then your query is a general enquiry and should be sent to enquiries@naturalresourceswales.gov.uk . If you live in Wales (as many hundreds of you do) then you may wish to mention that fact in your enquiry.
We suggest
that you use these words as part of your enquiry, but of course you may
ask this public body any question you like (but please be polite (we
don't doubt that you would be)):
Dear NRW,
I
understand that your current general licence GL004 which permits the
killing of Carrion Crows, Jackdaws, Magpies and Jays in Wales for
conservation purposes throughout 2021 has restrictions as to the months
in which it can be lawfully used. I have looked on your website for
these details but cannot find them. Please provide me with details as a
matter or urgency.
You will
receive a standard electronic response saying that you should get a
response in 10 working days (In Welsh and English). Wild Justice would
be interested to see copies of any substantive responses you receive.
Thank you for taking action in this way.
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