Baker Consultants Ltd

There is a need for the industry to work closely with Natural England to make sure that their systems are fit for purpose, can be easily implemented and achieve the aims of the legislation – which is to protect those rare and vulnerable species, the law may be complex but it does not mean that the systems which implement the law should add more complexity.

The danger is that an over bureaucratic approach can lead to a backlash against the law, driving species protection underground. If people perceive the law as unjust, the system can collapse.

The agencies responsible for this implementation themselves face challenges: how to ensure that they meet their obligations to the EU, getting the forms fully completed, following their procedures.

We don’t spend enough time together it seems – its hard to find a forum where statutory staff, non-statutory and consultants can spend time together and understand each others’ demands and challenges. Not the managers, the ‘coal face’ staff who do the work.