Draft Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2023

Mark Spencer Excerpts

Wednesday 31st January 2024 General Committees

[The Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries (Mark Spencer)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2023.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. The draft regulations were laid before the House on 14 December.

It is estimated that up to 5,000 primates are kept as pets in England. These wild animals have complex welfare and social needs, and most people lack the expert knowledge required to care for them properly. Material submitted in response to the Government’s call for evidence in 2019 confirmed that pet primates are sometimes kept in very poor welfare conditions. Charities and rescue centres have confirmed that primates transferred to them have often been diagnosed with physical and behavioural problems, including broken bones, malnourishment and hyper-aggression, resulting from poor private keeping. Enforcement action by local authorities can be limited by the lack of awareness of where most primates outside zoos are kept.

The Government’s 2020 consultation exercise, “Primates as pets in England”, confirmed overwhelming support for prohibiting the private keeping of primates without a relevant licence, with more than 98% of the 4,516 responses expressing support. The subsequent consultation in 2023 reconfirmed strong support, with 97% of the 643 responses welcoming the fact that the proposed welfare requirement standards include breeding, handling, veterinary care and environmental considerations.

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 already makes it an offence to cause unnecessary suffering to a kept animal, or to fail to provide for a kept animal’s welfare needs, but the Government are committed to enhancing welfare standards further. The regulations will provide additional protection for primates by ensuring that it will no longer be possible to keep them in domestic settings as household pets and in environments that fail to provide for their needs.

This statutory instrument, introduced under section 13 of the 2006 Act, establishes a licencing scheme that sets strict rules to ensure that only private keepers who can provide high welfare standards, akin to those of a licensed zoo, will be able to keep primates. The SI explains how applications for primate licences are to be made, how local authorities are to determine whether to grant a licence application, and how licences are to be renewed, varied or surrendered. The SI also provides local authorities with powers to serve rectification notices and to revoke or vary primate licences.

Existing and prospective keepers of primates in England will be required to be licensed by local authorities from 6 April 2026, except where the primates are being kept under a licence granted under the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 or the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. Local authorities will issue private primate-keeper licences only to those who can meet the welfare standards set out in the regulations, which are akin to those of licensed zoos. Anyone who keeps a primate in England will be required to have such a licence, and if they do not, they will be committing an offence under section 13(6) of the 2006 Act and will be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term of up to six months, an unlimited fine, or both.

Keepers and prospective keepers will need to apply for a private primate licence from the local authority in whose area the primates are kept. Licences will be valid for a maximum of three years and will be granted only by a satisfactory inspection conducted by the relevant authority. Licence holders must undergo reassessment to renew their permission to keep the animals, and inspectors will assess record keeping, the provision of emergency arrangements, care and maintenance, nutrition and feeding, physical health, environmental behaviour, handling and restraint, and transport and breeding, as well as the conditions in which the animals are kept. Guidance will be provided that sets out the detailed welfare standards to be met.

The SI will not apply to anyone who holds a zoo licence under the 1981 Act, or a Home Office scientific procedures licence under the 1986 Act. Separate standards already exist for those. It will, however, apply to all primates currently licensed under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 and the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. The SI will apply to England only and will come into force on 6 April 2026. That will provide existing keepers with two years from the SI being made to reach compliance with the licensing conditions. I commend it to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mark Spencer]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving us an example of this legislation receiving scrutiny—something that he accused the Government of not wanting, although we are here today to scrutinise it. As he indicated, it is a manifesto commitment to ban the keeping of primates as pets, which is what the legislation delivers.

What the hon. Gentleman is indicating is a banning of primates from the UK. The SI is about making sure that any primates that are here in the UK are kept in appropriate, zoo-level conditions. That means that someone cannot keep such an animal as a pet in their house or garden: they have to keep it in a condition that is equivalent to how it would be protected and looked after in a professional zoo. That is what the licensing process does and why we are asking those people who have those animals to register them.

Those people have time to get to the right standards or to find alternative accommodation for their primates. They have two years to comply with this legislation. We will help and support local authorities with guidance to make sure that they are aware of the standards and the work that needs to be undertaken. Of course, there is the ability to recover from the licence holders the full cost of licensing, meaning that those people who have a primate at home will have to pay the licence fee to the local authority, so the local authorities will not be out of pocket.

[Daniel Zeichner]

Will the Minister give some indication as to what estimate has been made of the costs that local authorities would be entitled to try to recoup? To go back to an earlier point, the grandfather clause that was in the previous legislation but is not here now was one way of trying to deal with the interim period.

[Mark Spencer]

We recognise that existing primate keepers will not immediately be able to provide zoo-level standards. To be clear, we do not expect them to do that, which is why there is a two-year implementation period, as I said. That gives them sufficient time to make the changes.

During the implementation phase, we will work with local authorities, with zoos and with the rescue sector to identify suitable rehoming facilities for primates and to foster network building among those groups. We will engage with the sector and continue to understand its positions to determine how it can be supported effectively to meet potential future demand for services. It will be down to local authorities to set the licence fee to make sure that they are not out of pocket, and we will help and support them on that journey to make sure that they get to the right level.

I hope that I have answered the hon. Member’s questions and concerns. I know that the Opposition share my conviction about the need for this instrument, and it is clear from this debate that animal welfare matters to the House. As I have outlined, the instrument establishes a licensing scheme, setting strict rules to ensure that only private keepers who can provide the high animal welfare standards required, akin to those provided by a licensed zoo, with be able to keep primates. I commend the regulations to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.