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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason cats and kittens do not receive the same level of protections afforded to dogs and puppies in the Kept Animals Bill.

The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was reintroduced to the House of Commons in May 2022 and will progress to Report Stage as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill includes a number of reforms that apply to the welfare of cats and kittens.

The Bill includes new restrictions to reduce the number of cats and kittens (as well as dogs and ferrets) that can be moved into Great Britain under the pet travel rules which apply to non-commercial movements. This will prevent unscrupulous traders from exploiting our pet travel rules.

In August 2021, HM Government launched a consultation on our proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain using powers included in the Bill. The consultation sought views on whether maintaining the existing requirements in relation to cats and kittens was the right approach. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a summary in due course. We will continue to work closely with external partners prior to the introduction of the secondary legislation, to ensure that our final measures are well considered and led by the latest evidence.

The Bill also introduces a new dog abduction offence and a power to extend the offence to include the abduction of other pet animals, including cats, using secondary legislation.

Our Action Plan on Animal Welfare, published in May 2021, included a number of reforms applicable to cats that do not require primary legislation. For example, we announced in December 2021 that we will introduce compulsory microchipping for all owned cats of 20 weeks and older and we expect to introduce the draft secondary legislation to Parliament by the end of this year.

During the Commons Committee stage of the Bill last year, the regulation of cat breeding was raised as a consideration. We are currently engaging with external partners to collate data and explore future options.