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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:

The full list of general licences and links to them is provided below:

General Licences valid between 1st January and 31st December 2012:

Cage traps and Larsen traps used under General Licences 1,2,3 and 4 must carry a tag or sign displaying a code which can be obtained by contacting your local Police Wildlife Crime Officer.

Please note that when a return form is required as a condition of a general licence, these forms should be submitted to Scottish Natural Heritage species licensing team and not Scottish Government as suggested.

General Licences valid between 1st January 2011 and 31st December 2011:

Cage traps and Larsen traps used under General Licences 1,2,3 and 4 must carry a tag or sign displaying a code which can be obtained by contacting your local Police Wildlife Crime Officer  PDF document .

Please note that when a return form is required as a condition of a general licence, these forms should be submitted to Scottish Natural Heritage species licensing team and not to Scottish Government.