The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (Amendment) Regulations 1995

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

Part I of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (“the Act”) contains provisions for, amongst other matters, implementing Council Directive 79/409 EEC on the conservation of wild birds.

These Regulations make amendments to Part I of the Act for the purposes of further implementing that Directive.

Subsection 4(3) of the Act provides certain defences to the killing or injuring by an authorised person (as defined in section 27(1) of the Act) of any wild bird, other than a bird included in Schedule 1 to the Act, contrary to section 1 or to any order made under section 3 of the Act. Under section 4(3)(c) those defences include action necessary for preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber, or fisheries.

Regulation 2—

(a) adds “inland waters” (as defined in regulation 4) to the list of matters in section 4(3)(c) in respect of which action to prevent serious damage may be taken;

(b) adds sections 4(4)-(6) to the Act to limit the defence available under section 4(3)(c) by providing—

(i) that an authorised person must show that there was no other satisfactory solution to the killing or injuring;

(ii) that if the killing or injuring was foreseeable, a licence under section 16 of the Act must be applied for as soon as reasonably practical and not determined;

(iii) that the authorised person must notify the agriculture Minister (as defined in section 27(1) of the Act) as soon as reasonably practical after the killing or injuring.

Section 16(1) of the Act provides for licences to enable action to be taken which would otherwise be unlawful under sections 1, 5, 6(3), 7 and 8 and orders under section 3 of the Act. Regulation 3(3) adds section 16(1A) to the Act to provide that an appropriate authority shall not issue a licence for any purpose in section 16(1) unless it is satisfied that there is no other satisfactory solution. Regulation 3 also makes various minor amendments to section 16.