White-clawed crayfish: survey or research licence (CL11)
Register for a licence to survey white-clawed crayfish for research, conservation or development projects – and report actions taken under this licence.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This licence allows you to survey white-clawed crayfish (also called Atlantic stream crayfish) by:
- hand
- hand net
- crayfish trap (to operate traps lawfully you will also need permission from the Environment Agency)
You need a separate licence for any other activities.
On this page you can:
- register for a new licence
- continue your registration for another year
- report actions taken under this licence
Register with Natural England
You must register with Natural England before you can use this licence.
What you need to pay
It costs £104 to register for a new CL11 licence.
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 white-clawed crayfish for development projects.
Natural England will refund unsuccessful applications.
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 an employee of an academic institution or research body or an environmental non-government organisation
How to pay
You can pay using a bank card. Follow the GOV.UK Pay link on the registration form for new licences.
References
You need to provide references to support your application 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
Complete the registration form
Complete the form to register for a new licence.
Register for a class licence to survey white-clawed crayfish
Natural England will confirm your registration in writing, usually within 30 working days. You must not carry out any licensed activities until you receive written confirmation of your registration.
Using your licence for another year
If you plan to use your licence for another year, confirm this on your white-clawed crayfish survey licence return form, when you report actions taken under this licence.
If you’ll use the licence for surveys to inform development projects, you must pay £35 to continue your registration for another year.
How to pay
You can pay using a bank card. Follow the GOV.UK Pay link on the survey licence return form.
Report actions taken under this licence
You must use the white-clawed crayfish survey licence return form to report any actions taken under this licence. Report your action between 1 and 31 January each year, even if you’ve taken no action or did not find the target species.
If you need to submit it outside these dates (for exceptional reasons only), email wildlife.scicons@naturalengland.org.uk.
You will be asked:
- for your licence details
- whether you did any surveys
- what survey methods you used
- for the total number of white-clawed crayfish caught at each survey site
- for the details of any invasive non-native crayfish found, including the species name, location (name, county and 10 figure OS grid reference), survey dates and estimate of the number found
- for the names of any accredited agents who carried out surveys on your behalf
- if you followed best practice
- if you want to continue using your licence for another year
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.