Natural England Fees
Charging for bat licenses has begun. A13, A34 and CL21 site registrations are all subject to new application fees.
A less complex bat EPS mitigation licence (A13) will be charged at a fixed price of £500. For a more complex A13 application, there will be a variable charge based on an hourly rate of £101 (to the nearest quarter of an hour), plus a charge of £183 towards the cost of compliance monitoring.
A bat science and conservation licence used for development purposes (A34) will be subject to a variable charge based on an hourly rate of £101 (to the nearest quarter of an hour), plus a charge of £61 towards the cost of compliance monitoring.
The bat mitigation class licence site registration (CL21) will be charged at a fixed price of £130.
A charge form must now be submitted with all applications. See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bats-apply-for-a-mitigation-licence.
Licences and site registrations issued for certain purposes are exempt from charges. These are as follows:
- householder home improvement projects, such as loft conversions, extensions, garages and conservatories or those not requiring any planning permission, for example under Generally Permitted Development;
- preserving public health and safety;
- preventing serious damage to property;
- preventing the spread of disease;
- science or education;
- nature conservation;
- historic building conservation;
- conserving a bat roost(s) in situ
Price Indication
Where a variable price applies, applicants can also use the Charge Form to request a Price Indication from Natural England. Natural England will provide a Price Indication within 15 working days of the date of the acknowledgement email. The Price Indication will be provided to help budget planning; it will state the price to the nearest day and is non-binding. If the assessment time turns out to be different to the Price Indication, the amount invoiced will be that based on the actual assessment time.