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This licence allows you to survey great crested newts using:

• hand
• nets
• torches
• aquatic funnel traps (including bottle traps)

You need a level 2 licence to use pitfall traps.

You cannot use box traps.

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

You must apply for an individual licence for survey, research or conservation work not covered by this licence, or a level 2 licence.

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

Register with Natural England

Before you can use this licence, you must register with Natural England using the application form linked on this page.

When you need to pay

It costs 80 to register for a new CL08 licence.

From October 2022, it will cost 35 to renew 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 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 only 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 - 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 application form.

References

You usually need to complete a 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 action taken

You must complete the survey return form between 1 and 31 October, even if youve taken no action or did not find target species. Youll need the names of any accredited agents who carried out the surveys on your behalf.

You must report your actions from 1 October to 30 September. For each site, you must record:

• survey location (10 figure Ordnance Survey grid reference and what3words)
• number of surveys taken
• start and end dates of each survey
• if you found great crested newt eggs
• if you did not find great crested newts
• the highest number of juveniles or adult great crested newts you found
• the purpose of your survey

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.

Renew your licence

You can use the survey return form to renew your registration.