Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Amending Schedule 2 of the Wildlife and

Countryside Act 1981
Removing the species White fronted Goose
28 January 2019
Introduction
We are planning to remove the White fronted Goose from Schedule 2 (birds which may be
killed or taken) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. This will mean that it will no
longer be legal to hunt this species in England. There are no plans to make any other
changes to the Schedule to either add or remove any other species.

We're doing this to meet the UK's legal obligations in relation to the Agreement on the
Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) Treaty. The findings of the
AEWA Standing Committee were that our proposals for a non-legislative approach were
not compliant with the legal requirements of the Treaty.

Nature conservation is a devolved matter, so deciding what birds may be killed or taken is
the responsibility of the individual administrations – England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. Hunting of the White fronted Goose is already prohibited in both Scotland
and Northern Ireland. The Welsh Government has chosen not to undertake a joint review
with England on removing the White fronted Goose from the quarry list.

Note - As Schedule 2 only refers to the White fronted Goose and does not differentiate
between the Greenland and European species the plan would be to remove Greenland
White fronted Goose by effectively removing White fronted Goose from Schedule 2 and
adding European White fronted Goose to Schedule 2.

The Birds Directive

European Directive 2009/147/EC5 (‘the Birds Directive’) creates a comprehensive system
of protection for all wild bird species naturally occurring in the European Union; it is the
primary legal mechanism for the protection of birds throughout Europe.

In England, Scotland and Wales, the Birds Directive has been implemented in domestic
law through a range of primary and secondary legislation. All wild birds are protected by
law from being killed, injured and taken from the wild by section 1 of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act 1981 (WCA 1981). However, Schedule 2 of the Act lists bird species
which may be killed or taken, outside the designated close season for that bird, without an
offence being committed.

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Questions
1. Do you agree with our plans to remove the White fronted Goose, anser albifrons, from
the list of species in Schedule 2?

2. We're also interested in receiving any information on the potential economic and social
impact of this change.

How to respond
Responses should be received by 25 February 2019.

They can be sent to the address below or e-mailed to jonathan.tweney@defra.gsi.gov.uk

GWfG Consultation
2nd Floor Horizon House
2 Deanery Road
Bristol
BS1 5AH

How we deal with responses

When this call for evidence ends, we will hold copies of all the responses, which can be
made available on request. Members of the public may ask for a copy of responses under
freedom of information legislation.

If you do not want your response - including your name, contact details and any other
personal information – to be publicly available, please say so clearly in writing when you
send your response to the consultation. Please note, if your computer automatically
includes a confidentiality disclaimer, that won’t count as a confidentiality request.

Confidentiality and data protection

This consultation document and consultation process have been planned to adhere to the
Consultation Principles issued by the Cabinet Office.

Representative groups are asked to give a summary of the people and organisations they
represent and where relevant who else they have consulted in reaching their conclusions
when they respond.

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Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal data, may be
published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes these are
primarily the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs), the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA). We have
obligations, mainly under the EIRs, FOIA and DPA, to disclose information to particular
recipients or to the public in certain circumstances.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware
that, as a public authority, the Department is bound by the Freedom of Information Act and
may therefore be obliged to disclose all or some of the information you provide. In view of
this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have
provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will
take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality
can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated
by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.

This consultation is being conducted in line with the Cabinet Office “Consultation
Principles” and be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-
principles-guidance.

If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address
them to:

Consultation Coordinator
Area 1C
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London
SW1P 3JR.

Or email: consultation.coordinator@defra.gsi.gov.uk

Next steps
A formal response to the consultation will be published within 3 months of the date of the
end of the consultation period.

Following consultation, we plan to make legislative changes with a simple negative

resolution Statutory Instrument and lay the legislation before Parliament as soon as
possible.

The consultation is January 2019 and the laying of the statutory instrument will be in
Autumn 2019 at the earliest.

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List of Consultees
Angling Trust
BASC
British Trust for Ornithology
CLA
Countryside Alliance
GWCT
Hawk and Owl Trust
LACS
Moorland Association
National Gamekeepers Organisation
National Trust
NFU
RSPB
RSPCA
Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

© Crown copyright 2019

You may re-use this information (excluding logos) free of charge in any format or medium,
under the terms of the Open Government Licence v.3. To view this licence visit
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ or email
PSI@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk

This publication is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications

Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at

jonathan.tweney@defra.gsi.gov.uk