Protected species licence classes and what each permits

The word licence does two different jobs in ecological work, and confusing them is the fastest way for a reviewer to miss a gap in an evidence base. A survey licence permits an ecologist to disturb a protected species while looking for it. A mitigation licence permits a development to do something that would otherwise be an offence, once permission is in place. Holding the first says nothing about entitlement to the second.

For anyone reviewing an AI-assisted draft or a consultant's report before submission, the question is narrower than it looks. Does the named ecologist hold a licence covering this species, this activity and this method, and is the licence current?

Survey licences and mitigation licences

Survey licences are personal. Natural England issues them to individuals who have shown competence and experience with a named species, and they permit acts such as disturbing bats at a roost, handling great crested newts or entering a badger sett for inspection. They are held by a person, not by a firm, so a report signed by a practice tells you nothing until you have the individual's licence number.

Mitigation licences relate to a development. They authorise work that would otherwise breach the protection given to the species, such as destroying a bat roost during conversion of a barn or excluding newts from a site before construction. They are applied for after planning permission is granted, because Natural England needs to know the development is authorised before it can assess whether the statutory tests are met.

That sequencing is the single most common programme error on small schemes. Permission, then licence, then works. Anyone who plans to start on site the week permission arrives has forgotten the licence.

Who may hold a licence

Three arrangements exist, and each carries different obligations.

An individual licence is issued to a named ecologist for named species and methods, at a level reflecting demonstrated experience. Higher levels permit more intrusive methods and, for bats, more complex roost types.

A class licence permits registered individuals to carry out defined low risk activities without applying case by case. The bat low impact class licence is the one most reviewers meet, covering works affecting small numbers of common species at roosts of low conservation significance, carried out by registered consultants who log their actions and report annually. Class licences carry reference numbers, and the current list and their conditions are published, so verification is straightforward.

An organisational licence is held by a body rather than an individual, usually for large or repeated programmes of work, with named licensed persons operating under it.

For every one of these, ask for the licence reference and the expiry date. A lapsed licence is not a technicality. Work carried out under it is an offence.

The three tests for a European protected species licence

Bats, great crested newts, dormice, otters and the other European protected species are covered by the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017. A mitigation licence can only be granted where all three of the following are satisfied.

The work must be for a purpose the Regulations recognise, which for development is normally imperative reasons of overriding public interest, including those of a social or economic nature, or public health and public safety.

There must be no satisfactory alternative. This is where the design gets tested, and a report that has not considered a smaller scheme, a different construction method or a phased approach will struggle.

The action must not be detrimental to the maintenance of the population of the species concerned at a favourable conservation status in its natural range.

Councils are expected to consider whether the tests are likely to be met before granting permission, so those arguments belong in the planning documents rather than being saved for the licence application. A protected species survey that sets out the three tests explicitly gives the case officer something to rely on. Surveys and any mitigation licence require a suitably licensed ecologist under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, and an AI-assisted draft is a starting point for that specialist rather than a substitute for one.

District level licensing and other alternatives

For great crested newts, Natural England operates district level licensing in participating areas. Instead of surveying and mitigating on the site itself, the developer makes a payment into a strategic scheme that creates and manages habitat at a landscape scale, and the site is released from site by site licensing.

It changes the programme materially, because the newt survey season no longer sits on the critical path. It is not available everywhere, the charge depends on the impact zone the site falls into, and it does not remove the need for ecological advice. Check the current coverage before assuming a site qualifies.

Where the work can be done without committing an offence at all, no licence is needed. Reasonable avoidance measures, timing works outside a sensitive season, supervised soft-strip demolition and hand searching under a method statement are all legitimate, but the judgement that a licence is unnecessary belongs to the ecologist and should be recorded with reasons.

Species outside the European protected species list

A reviewer working through a bundle should check which regime applies, because the answer changes who signs what.

Reptiles are the entry most often misread. There is normally no licence, which leads people to assume there is no constraint, when in fact a translocation programme over an extended capture period can be the longest ecological item on a programme.

What a reviewer should actually check

Six things, in order.

1. The name, licence reference, level and expiry date of every ecologist who carried out licensable work.
2. Whether the survey effort matches the current professional guidance for the species, including the number of visits, the season and the weather conditions.
3. Whether the report distinguishes what was observed from what was inferred, and flags gaps rather than filling them.
4. Whether the three licensing tests are addressed in terms, with the alternatives that were considered set out.
5. Whether the mitigation is specified precisely enough to be conditioned: roost feature types, numbers, positions, heights and timing.
6. Whether the programme allows for the licence to be applied for after permission and determined before works start.

Illustrative example: a barn conversion draft states that a bat roost will be replaced with bat boxes. The reviewer asks which species, which roost type, how many features, at what height and orientation, and whether the ecologist holds a licence covering that roost type. Two of those questions had no answer in the report, and both would have been raised by Natural England later, at the point where a delay costs most.

Devolved work follows a different regulator: Natural Resources Wales, NatureScot or the relevant Northern Ireland department, with their own licensing arrangements and forms.

This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Check the position with the relevant licensing authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

If you review AI-assisted drafts, the professional directory is the route to receive review requests, and you can browse the 66 report types to see the structure a draft arrives in. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.