Citation and commencement

1.  This Order may be cited as the Wildlife Licence Charges (England) Order 2018 and comes into force on 1st October 2018.

Interpretation

2.-(1) In this Order-

"the 1981 Act" means the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981(2);

"the 2017 Regulations" means the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017(3);

"application" includes a notification to Natural England(4) under a class licence(5) of a particular site where an applicant intends to carry out licensed activities, and in this context "applicant" means a person intending to rely on the class licence;

"bats" means all species of-

"complex application" means an application for a licence which requires Natural England to spend, prior to its issue, 5 hours or more assessing the impact on conservation of the licensable activities;

"protected species or habitat" means-

"simple application" means an application for a licence which requires Natural England to spend, prior to its issue, less than 5 hours assessing the impact on conservation of the licensable activities.

(2) In this Order, the issue of a licence includes-

(a)renewal or modification of a licence;

(b)registration under a class licence for the purpose of reliance on that licence;

(c)authorisation under a licence to carry out licensed activities at a particular site.

Licence charges

3.-(1) Where Natural England issues a licence of a description in column 1 of the Schedule in relation to an application of a kind described (where appropriate) in column 2 of the Schedule, the applicant must pay to Natural England-

(a)any corresponding fixed charge specified in column 3 of the Schedule;

(b)any corresponding variable charge specified in column 4 of the Schedule;

(c)where applicable, both of the charges referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b); and

(d)an additional charge, where paragraph (2) applies.

(2) This paragraph applies in respect of any licence for which a fixed charge alone is payable under paragraph (1)(a), where Natural England-

(a)requires further information from an applicant prior to issuing a licence; or

(b)issues a licence following review of an application it has rejected.

(3) A variable charge referred to in paragraph (1)(b) is calculated by multiplying the total number of hours spent by Natural England in assessing the licence application by £101.

(4) An additional charge referred to in paragraph (1)(d) is calculated by multiplying the additional hours spent by Natural England in connection with paragraph (2)(a) or paragraph (2)(b) by £101.

(5) For the purposes of paragraphs (3) and (4), the number of hours spent may be rounded to the nearest quarter of an hour, and expressed as a fraction accordingly, where the time spent is-

(a)less than one hour; or

(b)not a whole number of hours.

(6) A charge payable under this Order is payable to Natural England on demand.

Exemptions, reductions and remissions

4.-(1) An applicant is exempt from a charge payable under article 3-

(a)where the licence is issued-

(i)for the purposes of preserving public health or public safety;

(ii)for the purposes of preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber or any other form of property;

(iii)for the purposes of preventing the spread of disease;

(iv)under section 16(1)(e) of the 1981 Act, for the purposes of falconry; or

(v)in connection with development, within the meaning of section 55 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990(10), which is granted planning permission-

(aa)pursuant to article 3 of, and Part 1 of Schedule 2 (development within the curtilage of a dwelling house) to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015(11); or

(bb)following the making of a householder application within the meaning of article 2 of the Town and Country Planning (Development Management) (England) Order 2015(12);

(b)where the principal purpose or purposes of the project or activity to which the licence relates is or are-

(i)scientific, research or educational purposes relating to a protected species or habitat;

(ii)to maintain or improve the conservation of a protected species or habitat; or

(iii)to maintain or improve the conservation of an historic property; or

(c)where the applicant maintains or improves the conservation of bats through measures taken to avoid damage or destruction to an existing bat roost or to preserve access to that roost.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b)(iii), "historic property" includes-

(a)a scheduled monument (within the meaning of section 1(11) of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979)(13);

(b)a listed building (within the meaning of section 1 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990)(14);

(c)a place of worship;

(d)a traditional farm building to which a relevant commitment relates, where a "relevant commitment" is a commitment entered into under Title III of Regulation (EU) No. 1305/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development(15).

(3) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(c), a "bat roost" means a maternity, day or hibernation roost, used by three or more bats concurrently, within a building or structure.

(4) Natural England may, in any case-

(a)reduce, or

(b)remit in whole or in part,

any charge payable under article 3, as it sees fit.

Article 3

SCHEDULELicence charges

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Order)

Under section 11 of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 (c.16), the Secretary of State may require charges to be paid in respect of, and for the purpose of meeting the cost of, licences issued by Natural England.

This Order sets out charges to be paid in relation to licenses issued by Natural England under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (S.I. 2017/1012), the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (c. 69), the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 (c. 51) and the Deer Act 1991 (c. 54).

Article 3 provides that the charge for issuing a licence is specified in the Schedule. The charge may be a fixed charge, a variable charge calculated by multiplying the number of hours or part hours worked by £101, or a combination of the two. Article 3 also provides for an additional charge, based on an hourly rate of £101, for a fixed charge licence in certain prescribed circumstances.

Article 4 contains provision relating to exemption from, and reduction and remission of, charges payable under article 3 of this Order.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.