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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what conversations they have had with local authorities on the interpretation of the Standards of Modern Zoo Practice 2027.

This Government published new Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain on 24 May 2025. The Standards will come into force from May 2027 and will replace the current 2012 Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo Practice.

One of the objectives in updating the Standards has been to make requirements clearer to aid enforcement and compliance. As set out in the Animal Welfare strategy published in December 2025, the Department is working with the Zoos Expert Committee, which contains local authority representation – as well as other local authority zoo licensing groups – to update licensing guidance and inspection forms to make it more straightforward for local authorities to enforce the new Standards.