Natural England stripped and new licenses on their way - A call for evidence

This shock news is certainly a positive development as the current sitatuation could not continue. MP for Richmond (Yorks), Rishi Sunak has once again been first to share his thoughts with constituents following hard work to find answers and they look encouraging.

Michael Gove has asked us all to submit evidence so DEFRA can establish replacement licenses.

Dear all,

Following my various updates to you and your feedback, I have continued to keep pressing on this issue. This past week I met with and spoke multiple times to Secretary of State Michael Gove and the DEFRA Ministerial team. A large group of MPs met again with the Secretary of State to impress upon him our level of frustration, the seriousness of the situation and to suggest some solutions.

I am pleased the Department appears to have listened to our concerns and is acting:

• As of 9am this morning, DEFRA have temporarily taken general licensing back in-house and away from Natural England. This is something we pressed for.
  
• In order to make sure any new general licenses issued directly by DEFRA aren’t immediately overturned in the courts, DEFRA have taken top advice from external counsel and need to gather evidence
• This “call for evidence” will be published imminently, will last 1 week and then DEFRA need to analyse responses for a further week (these are minimum timetables to ensure legal robustness)
• This implies that optimistically a new general licensing regime could be in place in a fortnight or so
  
• Everybody affected should send in evidence of how badly the revocation has affected them, their livestock, and wildlife – this will strengthen our case with DEFRA. Please spread the word. Here is the link to the call for evidence. 
  
• DEFRA is in discussions with NE about providing additional resources to speed up the processing of individual licences in the meantime (individual licensing remains with Natural England).
• Concerns about the individual licences can be submitted to the Call for Evidence too

This exchange of letters between Natural England and the Secretary of State may be of interest:

Tony Juniper's letter to Michael Gove - 4th May

Michael Gove's reply to Tony Juniper, removing responsibility - 4th May

I know the considerable disruption this had on our rural community and many of your livelihoods. Again, I am sorry we have let you down and obviously we still have a long way to go, but I hope this serves to show the Government is now gripping the situation and acting to improve things. I will continue to keep working as hard as I can on this issue to reverse the damage and get back to a more sensible licensing regime.

Kind regards,

Rishi

Rishi Sunak
Member of Parliament for Richmond (Yorks)
Minister for Local Government