Have your say on the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

Aims of the Bill

The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill aims to address commitments made in the Conservative Party 2019 Manifesto in a single legislative step. The five overarching animal welfare issues addressed by the Bill are:

• Keeping primates as pets
• Dogs attacking or worrying livestock
• Export of livestock
• Importation of dogs, cats and ferrets
• Zoos

The measures on primates aim to prevent these animals being kept as pets. Where primates are kept in captivity, the Bill would introduce new licensing requirements to ensure that their welfare needs are being met.

Under the Bill, police will have new powers to provide greater protection to livestock from dangerous and out of control dogs. Additional species, such as llamas, ostriches and game birds, will also be given protection.

The Bill includes proposals to ban the export of live animals for slaughter and fattening. However, the measures would not cover poultry.

Under the Bill, restrictions on the number of pets (dogs, cats and ferrets) imported on a non-commercial basis would be implemented. The Bill includes further restrictions on importing animals that are pregnant, under a certain age, or which have undergone mutilations such as cropped ears and tails.

The Bill would amend the Zoo Licensing Act with the aim of improving zoo regulations and trying to ensure that zoos are doing more to contribute to conservation.

The Bill also includes powers to amend or revoke retained direct EU legislation.

Animal welfare is a devolved matter. The measures in the Bill vary in their territorial extent within Great Britain, however none of the measures would apply to Northern Ireland.

Follow the progress of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill

The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals( Bill 2021–22 was introduced to the House of Commons on 8 June 2021. This Bill was debated at second reading on Monday 25 October 2021 and has now been sent to a Public Bill Committee which will scrutinise the Bill line by line and is expected to report to the House by Thursday 18 November 2021.

• Bills before Parliament: Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill 2021–22
• Read Explanatory Notes: Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill 2021–22
• House of Commons Library Briefing Paper

Oral evidence sessions are expected to be held on Tuesday 9 November.

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Tuesday 9 November. Written evidence can now be sent in to the Public Bill Committee. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration and possibly reflect it in an amendment. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee will be available in due course under Selection of Amendments on the Bill documents pages. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it.

The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be Tuesday 9 November and the Committee is scheduled to report by Thursday 18 November. However, please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Thursday 18 November. You are strongly advised to submit your written evidence as soon as possible.

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk

Further guidance on submitting written evidence can be found here.

Image: Parliamentary Copyright