Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any proposals to license the increased culling of cormorants and other predatory native and non-native birds in England and Wales.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 provides licensing functions to permit the control of piscivorous birds, most often cormorants, to protect fisheries where it can be shown that non-lethal measures are failing to manage predation.

Licences are issued by Natural England, which has responsibility for setting a prudent upper limit on cormorant control to ensure that licensed removal does not irreversibly affect their conservation status. Licensing returns are monitored to ensure this limit is not breached. The Government is not currently proposing to license an increased culling of cormorants or other predatory species of birds.