The Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024

PART 1 Introduction

Citation, commencement, extent and application

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Management of Hedgerows (England) Regulations 2024 and come into force on the day after the day on which they are made.

(2) These Regulations extend to England and Wales but apply in relation to England only.

Interpretation

2.  In these Regulations—

“agriculture” includes—

(a)

horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, the breeding and keeping of livestock (including horses, ponies and any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purposes of its use in the farming of land);

(b)

the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, osier land, market gardens and nursery grounds;

(c)

the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes,

and “agricultural” is to be construed accordingly;

“agricultural holding” has the meaning given in section 1(1) of the Agricultural Holdings Act 1986(1) (principal definitions);

“civil sanction” means—

(a)

a compliance notice;

(b)

a restoration notice;

(c)

a stop notice;

(d)

a variable monetary penalty;

“compliance notice” has the meaning given in paragraph 1(1)(b) of Schedule 2;

“enforcement cost recovery notice” has the meaning given in regulation 12;

“farm business tenancy” has the meaning given in section 1 of the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995(2) (meaning of “farm business tenancy”);

“fertilisers” includes any material, organic or inorganic, natural or synthetic, which supplies nutrients required for plant growth, including but not limited to organic manures, lime, slurry, sewage sludge, anaerobic digestate, slag, trace elements, calcified seaweed and human waste;

“final notice” has the meaning given in paragraph 4(3) of Schedule 2;

“important hedgerow” has the meaning given in regulation 4;

“non-compliance penalty” has the meaning given in regulation 11(1);

“notice” means notice in writing;

“owner”, in relation to a hedgerow, means—

(a)

to the extent that the hedgerow is growing on any land which comprises part of an agricultural holding or which is subject to a farm business tenancy, the person who owns the freehold of the land or the tenant of that land; or

(b)

to the extent that the hedgerow is growing on any other land, the person who owns the freehold of the land,

and, for these purposes, a person who “owns the freehold” of land means a person who is entitled, otherwise than as a mortgagee not in possession, to dispose of the fee simple;

“pesticides” means anything used for destroying pests and includes herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and other biocides;

“Regulator” means the Secretary of State;

“restoration notice” has the meaning given in paragraph 1(1)(c) of Schedule 2;

“stop notice” has the meaning given in paragraph 1(2) of Schedule 1;

“variable monetary penalty” has the meaning given in paragraph 1(1)(a) of Schedule 2.

(1)

1986 c. 5.

(2)

1995 c. 8.