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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 in regulating the welfare of cats in England.

Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, anyone in the business of breeding and selling cats as pets, boarding cats or using cats for exhibition purposes needs to have a valid licence issued by their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse, vary or revoke licences.

Defra has been working on a post-implementation review (PIR) of the Regulations. This review considers whether the Regulations have met their objectives, and where there could be scope to further improve the protections they provide. The PIR will be published shortly.