The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced three new general licences. The news from Defra ended nearly two months of uncertainty and no little controversy following a challenge by Wild Justice, the wildlife campaign group, questioning the legality of some of the general licences issued by Natural England.
The three new licences are GL34, GL35 and GL36 and became valid from 14 June. The new licences are in addition to GL26, GL28 and GL31, which were issued shortly after the revocation of the original licences, GL04, GL05 and GL06, by Natural England from 25 April. It was this action at the end of April that caused confusion as to what shooters were able to legally do and led to Michael Gove, the environment secretary, and his…