Commentary on Sections Part 4 – Environmental Control of Animal and Plant Species Sections 24 and 25: Schedule 9 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
127.Section 24 amends Schedule 9 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 so that it is divided into three distinct Parts – non-native species (Part 1); native species (Part 1A); and animals no longer normally present (Part 1B). This allows native species on Part 1A to be removed entirely from the scope of the species control provisions and permits those animals listed on Part 1B (Eurasian beaver and wild boar) to remain within scope of the species control provisions only where they are present on premises, unlawfully, without a licence.
128.The inclusion of the Eurasian beaver in Part 1B of Schedule 9 to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in respect of England also secures legal certainty that a licence from Natural England is required before the beaver can be lawfully released into the wild.
129.Section 25 makes consequential changes to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 by amending section 14 (which regulates the release of species into the wild, and section 22 (which allows for Schedule 9 to be amended) so that both sections additionally now refer to the new Parts 1A and 1B of Schedule 9. It also addresses a current anomaly in the titles to section 14ZA and 14ZB of the 1981 Act to clarify that the species for which these sections may be relevant may in fact be species other than non-native species.