Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure any registration process for birdkeepers is effective and easy to use.

On 7 March 2023, Defra, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government launched a joint 12-week public GB-wide consultation on proposed registration requirement for all bird keepers as part of our work to tackle avian influenza. The consultation closes at 23:45 on 31 May 2023.

Proposed changes include extending the mandatory registration requirements to all bird keepers and not just those who keep 50 or more poultry (as is the current legal requirement) and requiring a mandatory annual update to the registration information. This includes owners of backyard flocks, birds of prey and pigeon fanciers. This proposal will not affect pet birds that are kept entirely inside a domestic dwelling. For example, a parrot or a budgie kept in a cage entirely within a domestic dwelling and which never leaves the said dwelling except for veterinary assistance or short-term (a few days or 2-3 weeks) periods where the owner is unable to look after the bird(s) themselves.

A review of the poultry registration process was identified as one of the key lessons from the 2021/22 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak and previous HPAI outbreaks. In addition, the 2018 Dame Glenys Stacey Review recommended the removal of the lower bird number limit for registration of poultry, due to the risk of exotic disease and the operational need to reach all poultry owners when an outbreak occurs. The mandatory registration requirements will enable the Government to communicate with bird keepers quickly, to manage potential disease outbreaks, such as avian influenza, and limit the spread. By registering their birds, keepers will ensure they receive important information on biosecurity rules to help protect their flocks from the threat of avian influenza.

Information bird keepers will need to provide includes contact details of the owner, the location where birds are kept and details of the birds (species, number, and what they are kept for). Efficiency and ease of use will be one of the key driving factors in any registration tool. We are working on moving the register to an online portal to allow keepers to access and update their record directly. The online platform will be rolled out in phases, with the first phase likely to be rolled out by summer 2023. The proposed changes will not be implemented until new keepers can register their bird(s) via the online portal and those already registered are able to review and update their information via the online platform.