Natural England
Details
This licence allows you to disturb or capture bats by hand or using:
- endoscopes
- static hand-held nets
- torches
You can disturb but not handle hibernating bats.
You need a:
- level 1 licence if you only need to use a torch
- level 3 licence to use mist nets and acoustic lures
- level 4 licence to use harp traps
For survey, research or conservation work not covered by this licence you must apply for either:
For development work affecting bats, you must apply for a mitigation licence.
You must release all bats at the place where they were captured immediately after they are examined.
Register with Natural England
Before you can use this licence, you must register with Natural England using the registration form.
What you need to pay
It costs 80 to register for a new CL18 licence.
It costs 35 a year to continue your registration.
You must declare the intended use of the licence on your registration form. To continue your registration, you must declare how you used the licence in the past year on your annual survey return. This will determine if you need to pay, such as to survey bats for development projects.
Natural England will refund unsuccessful applications.
When you do not need to pay
You do not need to pay if the licence is only used for:
- voluntary purposes - any work you do is unpaid and you are registered with an organisation, charity or local recording group as a volunteer
- conservation, science or research purposes and research related to the protected species is carried out by a student or employee of an academic institution or research body
How to pay
You can pay using a bank card. Follow the GOV.UK Pay link on the registration form or survey return form.
Read the terms and conditions for paying for a wildlife licence.
References
You need to complete a reference to support a survey or research licence form when you register for this licence if you:
- have not held a licence for the species or a similar species for the last 3 years
- have a licence but want to add new methods
Report action taken
You must complete the survey return form by 30 June each year, even if youve taken no action or did not find target species.
You should only complete and submit a survey return form between 1 and 30 June. If you need to submit it outside these dates (for exceptional reasons only) email wildlife.scicons@naturalengland.org.uk
You must report your actions from 1 June to 31 May. You must list all surveys carried out under this licence where you found bats. For each survey, you must record:
- the bat species found
- survey location - include the 10 figure Ordnance Survey grid reference, site name, county and postcode (where available)
- date of each survey
- visit type and roost type
- number of bats you observed or captured
- the purpose of your survey
You can also record additional information such as:
- the sex and age of bats found