Bird licences - general licences

General licences permit 'authorised persons' to carry out actions that would otherwise be illegal. They cover certain types of activity relating to birds, such as preserving public health or air safety, and preventing the spread of disease. General licences cover situations that are regarded as relatively commonplace and where there is unlikely to be any great conservation impact.

General licences avoid the need for people to apply for individual licences for these specific circumstances.  General licences are still subject to strict conditions, and abuse of them or failure to comply with the conditions could constitute an offence.

The list and content of general licences is reviewed each year:

• Consultation letter for 2013 General Licences 
• Outcome of consultation for 2013 General Licences 
• All responses from 2013 General Licences consultation 

Please note that, for Data Protection Act reasons, some of the information in the above responses document cannot be made available on this website.

The full list of general licences and links to them is provided below. Please note that the definitions for Larsen and Larsen pod traps in General Licences 1 to 4 now include doors which can be spring or gravity operated. Further, the Jay has been taken off the list of birds which can be used as a decoy in General Licence 2:

General licences valid between 1 January and 31 December 2013:

• General Licence 01/2013: Licence to kill or take certain birds for the conservation of certain birds 
• General Licence 02/2013: Licence to kill or take certain birds for the purpose of preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables and fruit 
• General Licence 03/2013: Licence to protect public health, public safety and prevent the spread of disease 
• General Licence 04/2013: Licence to protect air safety 
• General Licence 05/2013: Licence to keep certain wild birds for the purpose of rehabilitation 
• General Licence 06/2013: Licence for veterinary surgeons and practitioners to keep certain birds 
• General Licence 07/2013: Licence to take birds eggs for the purpose of removing unsuccessful eggs from nest boxes 
• General Licence 08/2013: Licence to permit the sale of certain captive-bred species of birds 
• General Licence 09/2013: Licence to permit the competitive showing of certain captive-bred live birds 
• General Licence 10/2013: Licence to allow the keeping of certain birds in show cages for training purposes 
• General Licence 11/2013: Licence to take eggs of the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) for incubation 
• General Licence 12/2013: Licence to permit the incubation of schedule 4 chicks 
• General Licence 13/2013: Licence to sell feathers and parts of certain dead wild birds 
• General Licence 14/2013: Licence to sell dead birds 
• General Licence 15/2013: Licence to capture red grouse to administer medication