Parliament's Spending Watchdog Confirms What Gamekeepers Have Long Known: Natural England Is Failing the Countryside

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The National Gamekeepers' Organisation (NGO) welcomes the findings of the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts report on Environmental Regulation (HC 1687), published today, which independently confirms longstanding concerns raised by the NGO about Natural England's capacity, culture and effectiveness in supporting those who work and manage wildlife in the British countryside.

The NGO submitted verbal and written evidence to this inquiry, raising concerns about the real-world impact of Natural England's regulatory approach on gamekeepers and wildlife managers across England. We are pleased that the Committee has taken those concerns seriously and that its findings reflect what our members experience every day in the field.

The Committee's report makes several findings that the NGO regards as directly relevant to gamekeepers, wildlife managers and those who rely on timely, proportionate and evidence-based decisions from Natural England:

•  Natural England is already failing to meet its current demands effectively, with significant and long-standing vacancies, including a 16% vacancy rate in its planning policy reform programme alone. The impact on wildlife licensing processing times is felt acutely by our members.

•  Natural England relies on generic and out-of-date information when making decisions. For those seeking species licences or consents for wildlife management activities, the consequences of decisions based on poor data can be severe and long-lasting.

•  The regulatory system is characterised by a deep-seated culture of risk aversion. The Committee explicitly states that this culture must change, and that both Natural England and the Environment Agency need to be empowered to take proportionate risks and innovate. The NGO has raised this point for years.

•  Guidance is complex, difficult to navigate, and often fails those it is meant to serve. Land managers are frequently forced to engage with multiple regulators simultaneously, with overlapping and sometimes contradictory requirements. This is an unnecessary burden on people trying to do the right thing for wildlife and the countryside.

•  Defra itself lacks a clear strategic vision for what environmental regulation should achieve. Without that direction, Natural England cannot prioritise effectively or demonstrate how its work contributes to genuine environmental outcomes.

•  Natural England's IT systems are severely outdated and urgently require investment. This directly contributes to the unacceptably slow processing of wildlife licences that gamekeepers and land managers depend upon.

John Clarke, Director of Conservation, Policy and Uplands said:

"This report confirms what gamekeepers have said for years: Natural England is not fit for purpose. Dedicated wildlife professionals are being failed by an under‑resourced, risk‑averse regulator that moves too slowly, relies on outdated information, and issues guidance no one can realistically navigate.

Wildlife licensing delays have real consequences for conservation, for land management and for the livelihoods of those who care for our countryside, especially when licences that should take days drag on for weeks or months or when workable general licences are replaced with unworkable individual ones.

We welcome the Committee’s recognition that this culture of excessive caution must change; a regulator paralysed by fear does not protect nature, it simply blocks those doing the work. Defra must now act with urgency and engage meaningfully with the people who manage wildlife every day."

Considering this report, the NGO calls on Defra and Natural England to:

1.  Publish the detailed reform plan required by the Committee within the six-month deadline, with explicit reference to wildlife licensing timescales and standards.

2.  Set binding service standards for wildlife licensing decisions, with transparent reporting on performance against those standards.

3.  Genuinely reform Natural England's risk-averse culture, empowering its staff to make timely, proportionate decisions based on sound evidence rather than excessive precaution.

4.  Meaningfully engage with gamekeepers, wildlife managers and rural land management organisations in designing the new regulatory framework; not just farming interests.

5.  Urgently invest in Natural England's digital systems so that licensing processes can be modernised and processing times reduced.

The path forward is clear: meaningful reform. It’s time for Defra to turn these findings into action, build a regulatory system that works with the countryside rather than against it, and allow the people safeguarding it to get on with the job.

 

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Notes to Editors:

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation: The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) represents the gamekeepers of England and Wales. The NGO defends and promotes gamekeeping and gamekeepers and works to ensure high standards throughout the profession. The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation was founded in 1997 by a group of gamekeepers who felt that keepering was threatened by public misunderstanding and poor representation. Today, there are 13,000 members of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation.  www.nationalgamekeepers.org.uk