Registering under a bat mitigation class licence

A bat class licence registered consultant can register an eligible site under Natural England's bat mitigation class licence rather than wait for a bespoke European protected species licence, which is the difference between a few weeks and a few months on a small scheme. The trade is scope. The class licence covers defined species and defined roost types at a low level of impact, and the moment a project falls outside those limits the bespoke route returns.

Registration is personal to the consultant. It is not held by the consultancy and it does not transfer between people.

What a class licence permits and what it excludes

The class licence permits specified activities affecting roosts of listed species where the impact is low, subject to the conditions attached to the licence and to the registration of each site.

Its boundaries are the part to read carefully.

• Only the species named in the licence are covered. Rarer species and those of highest conservation concern are outside it.
• Only the roost types listed are covered, and roosts of higher status, including major maternity roosts and hibernation sites, are excluded.
• The scale of impact is limited, both in the number of bats and in the extent of roost loss.
• Certain works and methods are excluded outright.

Where a project is at the margin, the safer reading is the narrow one. A registration made for a site that turns out not to qualify is not a licence, and the works are then unlawful under the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 whatever anyone believed at the time.

Note also that a survey licence and a mitigation licence are different things. Holding the first does not permit the activities covered by the second.

The experience record needed to register

Natural England assesses applicants on demonstrated competence rather than on years in post. That means a documented record of bat mitigation work carried out under licence, with the applicant's own role in each project stated accurately.

Build the portfolio as you go rather than at the point of application. For each project record the site, the species, the roost type and status, the impact, the mitigation and compensation designed, the monitoring undertaken and the outcome, and who supervised you. Distinguish clearly between work you led and work you assisted on, because overstating a role is the fastest way to lose an application and the credibility that goes with it.

Referees matter. An existing licence holder who has worked alongside you and can speak to your field judgement, not just your report writing, is worth more than a senior name who has only read your work.

Registered consultant responsibilities on site

The registration puts the named consultant in a position of responsibility for compliance, and the conditions are specific about what that involves.

1. Confirm the site qualifies before registering it, and record the evidence for that conclusion.
2. Design mitigation and compensation appropriate to the species and roost, following the current good practice guidelines.
3. Be present or provide supervision at the stages the licence requires, and make sure the contractor understands what those stages are.
4. Keep contemporaneous records: dates, personnel, weather, what was found, what was done.
5. Report as required, including any site returns and the periodic returns the licence conditions specify.
6. Stop work and reassess if what is found on site differs from what was registered.

That last point is the one that separates licensed practice from paperwork. A roost that turns out to hold a different species, or many more bats than the survey indicated, takes the site outside the registration, and continuing regardless is an offence.

Site registration against consultant registration

Two separate registrations are involved and they are often confused by clients.

The consultant registers once with Natural England and holds that status personally, subject to renewal and to continued compliance. Each project is then registered separately against the class licence, with the site details, the species, the roost and the proposed works.

Site registration is not automatic. It is a submission that has to be accurate, and Natural England can decline it or ask questions. Planning permission is normally needed before a site can be registered, in the same way that a bespoke licence is not issued until permission exists, so the sequencing on a development is survey, then application, then permission, then registration, then works.

Build that sequence into the programme. A client who assumes the licence can be sorted out during the build has misunderstood the order.

Where a bespoke licence remains necessary

A bespoke European protected species licence is still required where the species, the roost status or the scale of impact falls outside the class licence, and where the mitigation proposed is unusual enough that it needs individual assessment.

The bespoke route requires the three tests to be satisfied: that the activity is for a licensable purpose, that there is no satisfactory alternative, and that the action will not be detrimental to the maintenance of the population of the species at a favourable conservation status. Those tests are also relevant to the planning decision itself, because a local planning authority has to have regard to them when it decides an application affecting a European protected species.

That is worth explaining to applicants early. A Protected Species Survey and the licensing that follows are areas where a suitably licensed ecologist is legally required, and no drafting tool substitutes for that. The same applies to the survey work behind a Bat Survey report.

Reporting duties and the consequences of failure

The class licence works because Natural England can see how it is being used, and that visibility depends on returns being made properly and on time.

Failures have graded consequences. A late or incomplete return usually produces a request and a record. A pattern of them, or a registration made for an ineligible site, can lead to conditions being imposed on the consultant, to suspension, or to removal of registration. Beyond that sit the offences in the underlying legislation, which attach to the works rather than to the paperwork.

Professional consequences follow too. Ecological practice runs on the credibility of the individual, and a consultant whose registration has been withdrawn will find that planning authorities and clients notice.

Checking a consultant's registration

For a developer or a reviewer, this takes one email and it is worth sending.

Ask for the individual's name as registered, not the company's. Ask which class licence they are registered under and confirm it is the one relevant to the proposed work. Ask whether the specific site has been registered, and for the registration reference once it has. Ask who will be present during the licensed works, because the registered consultant has to be the one supervising rather than a colleague.

Then check the answers with Natural England rather than accepting a statement on a letterhead. Reviewers doing this as part of a professional sign-off should also confirm the survey effort behind the conclusion is current, since survey validity has a shelf life, and checking whether a survey is still valid is part of the same exercise. The broader question of who counts as qualified for what is covered in what competent person means in planning legislation.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For protected species work a suitably licensed ecologist is legally required, and a draft report is a starting point for that professional rather than a substitute for them. This is general guidance rather than legal advice, so check the current licence conditions with Natural England before relying on it.