Great crested newts: survey or research level 2 licence (CL09)

This licence allows you to survey great crested newts using:

• pitfall traps – you must tell Natural England before you use these traps
• hand
• nets
• torches
• aquatic funnel traps (including bottle traps)

You cannot use box traps.

You must release all great crested newts you capture as soon as you’ve finished examining them.

You must apply for an individual licence or a level 1 licence for survey, research or conservation work not covered by this licence.

For development work affecting great crested newts, you must apply for a mitigation licence.

Using pitfall traps

When using pitfall traps you must:

• tell Natural England at least 5 working days before installing fences and traps using the Pitfall traps: notify Natural England before use form (WML-CL09) on this page
• only use a maximum 20 metre fence line and 15 pitfall traps per site
• avoid obstructing or significantly disrupting natural migration patterns
• check pitfall traps at least once a day between 6am and 11am
• make sure fence and trap designs comply with guidelines
• not use pitfall traps over the winter
• not ring-fence ponds
• not leave fences in place for more than 20 days

Register with Natural England

Before you can use this licence, you must register with Natural England using the registration form for a class licence.

Register for a class licence to survey great crested newts .

What you need to pay

It costs £104 to register for a new CL09 licence.

It costs £35 a year to continue your registration.

You must declare the intended use of the licence on your registration form. This will determine if you need to pay, such as if you are going to survey great crested newts for development projects.

Natural England will refund unsuccessful applications.

Read the terms and conditions for paying for a wildlife licence.

When you do not need to pay

You do not need to pay if the licence is used for:

• voluntary purposes – any work you do is unpaid and you are registered with an organisation or charity as a volunteer
• conservation, science or research purposes, and research related to the protected species is carried out by a student or employee of an academic institution or research body

How to pay

You can pay using a bank card. Follow the GOV.UK Pay link on the registration form.

References

You usually need to completeprovide aat least one reference to support a survey or research licence form when you register for this licence if you:

• have not held a licence for the species or a similar species for the last 3 years
• have a licence but want to add new methods

Report actionthe actions taken under the licence

You needmust toreport completein a survey licence return form any actions that are taken under this licence. Complete and submit the survey licence return between 1 and 31 October each year, even if you’ve taken no action or did not find target species. You’ll need to provide the names of any accredited agents who carried out the surveys on your behalf.

YouThe mustactions that you report yourin actionsthe form should contain information about the use of the licence from 1 October to 30 September. For each site,water body (for example, a pond or lake), you must record:

• the survey location (10 figure Ordnance Survey grid reference and what3words county)
• the numberstart and end date of the period that surveys takentook place at each water body
• the startpurpose of your survey
• whether great crested news were present or absent
• peak counts of adult and endjuvenile datesgreat crested newts
• the number of newts recorded by each surveylicensable method
• results of egg searches, if youconducted
• results foundof greateDNA crestedsurveys, newtif eggsconducted
• a Habitat Suitability Index score for each water body, if yourecorded
• presence of other amphibians, if found (native or non-native)
• presence of non-native plants, if found

You will not need to provide the results of surveys where you: 

• did not finduse greatany crestedof newtsthe licensable methods 
• completed the highestsurvey numberunder ofa juvenilesdifferent orlicence, adultsuch greatas cresteda newtsmitigation youlicence foundor project licence 
• completed the purposesurvey ofas youran surveyaccredited agent or assistant on someone else’s licence

You Complete a great crested newt survey licence return form

If you or your accredited agents used licensable techniques, you must also send your results to the Local Record Centre. You can do this by recording your results on the iRecord website or contacting your Local Record Centre.

ContinueUsing your registrationlicence for another year

YouBy reporting your actions, you can continue to use the surveylicence returnfor formthe following reporting period. If you will use the licence for surveys to continueinform yourdevelopment registration.projects, Ityou costswill £35need ato yearpay £35 to continue your registration.registration for another year.

Get help

If you need help with registering for a class licence or with completing a form, contact wildlife.scicons@naturalengland.org.uk.