Red lists in Great Britain
Red lists are a globally recognised way of identifying the threat of extinction to species, using the internationally accepted Red List guidelines developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (IUCN 2012a, 2012b, IUCN Standards and Petitions Subcommittee 2019). Red List assessments are objective and based on scientific information and ongoing research. This information can help make decisions about conserving biodiversity at local to global levels, but are not a list of conservation priorities per se.
There are two types of red list: global lists and regional/national lists. The procedure for assessing species at a global scale is described by IUCN 2012a and at a regional scale by IUCN 2012b. Both are also supported by more detailed guidelines (IUCN 2019).
Great Britain Red Lists
GB Red Lists cover England, Scotland, and Wales – they do not cover Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands. Due to the efforts of our Red List partners, national GB Red Lists have been completed for multiple species groups. Information from these Red Lists are available via:
- The JNCC GB Red List Dashboard (in trial period)
- The JNCC spreadsheet of species conservation designations
- As publications: onJNCC's Resource Hub (if published by JNCC), in academic journals, or on the relevant country nature conservation body (CNCB), specialist society, or NGO websites.
GB red listing is overseen by an inter-agency working group co-ordinated by JNCC with members from Natural England, Natural Resources Wales, and NatureScot.
GB Red List Updates
JNCC collates information on taxa that have been assessed, quality assured, and published in a Statutory Nature Conservation Body approved GB IUCN Red Lists. These assessments are added in the Conservation Designations Spreadsheet and the new JNCC GB Red List Dashboard.
These resources are updated every 6 months, reflecting the frequency of GB Red List publication. There may be GB Red Lists published in between updates that will not be captured until the next update.
Table 1 below details the status of Red Lists that have recently been added to the JNCC resources, or will be added in the next update.
Table 1. Progress with red listing of GB species' groups (last updated 2 June 2026).
|
Taxon Group |
JNCC Resource Status |
|
Pending upload |
|
|
Uploaded June 2026* |
|
*JNCC will be undertaking an update to upload any pending Red Lists in mid-June 2026.
GB Red List Dashboard
JNCC is trailing a new way of sharing GB Red List information through an interactive Dashboard. This Dashboard can be searched and filtered in various ways, for example by searching for a specific species group, or searching for a Red List Status. All underlying data feeding into this Dashboard can be downloaded in spreadsheet format from the Dashboard itself, or from JNCC's Resource Hub (GB Red List Dataset).
If you have any feedback on the Dashboard, please let us know by completing our GB Red List Dashboard feedback form.
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