Somebody has to look after the newts!

Julie Lunt

2nd November 2015

Enforcement Documentation and Registers

• Compliance and Enforcement Position – December 2011

• Enforcement Guidance – December 2011

• Public register – civil sanctions and prosecutions

Enforcement Guidance Matrix

Technical Minor Medium Significant

Restoration Advice and guidance or warning letter (or Fixed Monetary Penalty where advice / guidance /warning letter does not prevent offending)

Restoration Notice (or Enforcement Undertaking)

Prevention Compliance Notice or Stop Notice (or Enforcement Undertaking)

Deterrence Variable Monetary Penalty

Prosecution

Financial benefit removal

Withholding financial incentives / Variable Monetary Penalty

Types and Range of Cases

Protected Areas Protected Species

Protected Areas: casework stats – 2014/15

Breaches of species licence

Species offences – 2014 -15

Prosecutions: Farndale SSSI

"BASC condemns the actions on this shoot which have led to the damage of a SSSI. All shoots have a responsibility to understand the importance of protected sites and to work with conservation agencies to ensure shooting is compatible with such sites. People need to be aware of the rules and they need to make sure they abide by them."

Prosecutions: Honister Crag

Use of Civil Sanctions: first restoration notice

Diggers and peat bogs don’t mix!

If you have two they both sink!

Stop Notice – breeding birds and jet skis not a good mix

Bats – failing to require a licence

•Eaton v Natural England [2012] All ER 172

•Application for injunctive relief

Judge said NE took:

“a proportionate and common sense view of criminal liability and when to initiate criminal proceedings”

Planning Issues as reported by the press

• “Holy bat protection! That’s cost me £10,000”

• “Newt-ered! Work on new £14M Police HQ halted because of ONE Great Cested Newt”

• “Council pay £190,000 bill for mice bridge”

• “Frisky newts delay shopping development”

• “Restore your home? Only if you give 3 bats their own room, £3000 of ‘furniture’ and absolute quiet for 6 months. Its….Batty!”

Our Role

• We respond to more than 25,000 planning cases each year, only objecting to 1.6% on environmental grounds.

• We respond to 2300 applications for European Protected Species Licences.

• More statistics – more than 96% of GCN licence applications are successful

Key case:

R (Morge) v Hampshire CC [2011] UKSC 2

Planning Committee’s role – to have regard to whether the requirements of the Habitats Directive may be affected by the decision to grant planning permission

Whereas -

Natural England’s role – primary responsibility for compliance with the Habitats Directive

Planning vs EPS licensing

Customer feedback

• Improved consistency in our advice and casework handling and understanding customer needs

• Ease of contact, customer care and transparency

• Better sharing of data, lessons learnt and use of evidence

• Enhanced, more consistent access to advice earlier in the process to prevent delays

• Clarity around terms of engagement in casework

Improvement Plan

• NE has published an improvement plan for planning and licensing

• Published October 2014

• Link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/367276/natural-england-improvement-plan.pdf

Streamlining Species Licencing

• Risk-based approach

• New class and organisational licences

• Training for ecologists

• Strategic approach to protecting GCN

Organisational Licence

Example – Network Rail

•Upgrade works between St Pancras and Sheffield

•Licence granted to capture and move GCN along the length of the railway at any time during work critical periods when low impact works e.g. gantry installation are being undertaken.

Strategic approach to GCN licensing

• Focus is on the Favourable Conservation Status of the GCN in the area

• LPA proactively asses the FCS across their district and the level of impact from planned development.

• Assess whether that impact could be avoided or mitigated • The LPA would put in place a sufficient level of compensatory

habitat to ensure that a net benefit to GCN arises from the anticipated scale of development.

• Cost of creating the habitat recouped from developers who want to use it.

Benefits of GCN strategic approach

• Improve outcomes for GCN• Reduce the cost of survey and mitigation works where risk to GCN

is low• Reduce uncertainty in timetabling and consents• reduce the need to plan for GCN in the development footprint• Licensing process also streamlined

Further in the future

• Law Commission report on wildlife law

• EU – Regulatory Fitness and Performance Review of Habitats Directive