241.This section amends section 16AA of the 1981 Act, which deals with licensing for land used to kill or take certain birds, such as grouse.
242.Section 48 amends the 1981 Act in three ways. First, in subsection (2), it amends subsection (4) of section 16AA to provide that an application for a section 16AA licence(26) is to contain a description of the land that the applicant proposes the licence should cover. At present, section 16AA allows the applicant to specify the land to which the licence will apply. However, new subsection (5A) (inserted by section 48(3)) enables the relevant authority (in practice, SNH) where it considers it reasonable and appropriate to do so to propose a different area for the licence and, should agreement not be possible, to refuse the licence on that basis. This covers situations where the area proposed for the licence is considered to be inappropriate for some reason. The relevant authority must provide reasons for why it is proposing a different area.
243.The second change to section 16AA is to subsection (9) of that section. This relates to circumstances in which a section 16AA licence may be suspended or revoked. At present, a licence may be suspended or revoked where certain “relevant offences”(27) (or conduct which the relevant authority is satisfied constitutes such an offence) are committed on the land to which the licence relates. Section 48(4) amends that to provide instead that suspension or revocation may occur where relevant offences that are committed support or benefit the activities permitted by the licence. This removes the strict geographical connection and means that relevant offences committed anywhere, but which the relevant authority is satisfied are likely to support or benefit the killing or taking of grouse under the licence, may result in the relevant authority taking action. For example, where the relevant authority is satisfied that a relevant offence such as killing a bird of prey has been committed(28) by a licence holder or an employee of the holder and that this will benefit the licensed activity (for example, by reducing predation of grouse farmed for shooting), then the relevant authority may suspend or revoke the licence.
244.The third change is that section 48(5) inserts a new subsection (9A). Under subsection (9)(a), the relevant authority may modify a licence. However new subsection (9A) provides the safeguard that the relevant authority may not, without the prior agreement of the licence holder, modify a licence to identify an area of land to which the licence relates which is different from the area of land identified when the licence was granted.
245.Section 48(6) makes transitional provision to clarify that the changes to when a licence may be suspended or revoked only apply from the date that the new subsection (4) comes into force. That means the relevant authority cannot suspend or revoke a licence granted before the coming into force of section 48 on the basis of a relevant offence committed otherwise than on the licensed land before that section comes into force (or for conduct that the relevant authority is satisfied constituted a relevant offence).
The Act Wildlife licensing Section 48 – Licensing: land on which certain birds may be killed or taken