S.L. 549.180 Art. 3Interpretation.    S.L. 549.42. 5

The terms and expressions used in these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires, shall have the same meaning assigned to them in the Conservation of Wild Birds Regulations, hereinafter referred to as the "Wild Birds Regulations", and in the Framework Regulations.

11 * ********* The Framework Regulations provide for daily police spot-checks in all regions of Malta and Gozo for the time when a research period is open until at least four weeks from the termination of the research period with an enforcement deployment "in the region of fifty (50) Police officers". Throughout the previous finches research derogation periods (autumn 2020–2024), there was a minimum of one

(1) spot-check for every two (2) data collectors and a maximum of six (6) spot-checks for every five (5) data collectors at any given time in all regions, calculated as a percentage of the total number of spot-checks carried out and the total number of special research licences issued for each finches research derogation period. Since the number of special research licence holders (data collectors) participating in the finches research project concurrently on any given day of the derogation periods was much lower than the total number of licences issued, the number of daily spot-checks on individual data collectors was much higher overall, and higher still when the number of data collectors that took part in the research on any given day during the research period was the lowest.