<p>This is a devolved matter and the information refers to England only. The table below shows the number of licences to permit the killing of wild birds for purposes permitted under Section 16 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 issued between 2009 and 2018. These figures include licences to permit shooting, shooting to reinforce scaring, and other methods such as round up and cull as these are all recorded together. Due to a change of IT systems and reporting of data, we are unable to provide reliable, accurate data for 2014.</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Number of licences issued</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009</p></td><td><p>640</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010</p></td><td><p>614</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011</p></td><td><p>719</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012</p></td><td><p>556</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013</p></td><td><p>828</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014</p></td><td><p>UNAVAILABLE</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015</p></td><td><p>644</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016</p></td><td><p>738</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017</p></td><td><p>850</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2018</p></td><td><p>859</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p>