Conference will explore legacy of Animal Welfare Act 2006 on its 20th anniversary

September 30, 2026

“Acts of Omission: Assessing 20 Years of the Animal Welfare Act 2006”

Friday 20th November 2026, 9am-5pm, Clayton Hotel, Cambridge City Centre

November 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the Animal Welfare Act 2006’s Royal Assent. This conference, co-hosted by the Centre for Animals and Social Justice and The Schweitzer Institute (TSI) will primarily explore the legacy of this significant juncture in the evolution of human relationships with other animals in the UK, in the context of other areas of animal-related governance such as animal experimentation regulation, policies affecting wild animals and governance in the devolved nations. The focus on animal welfare law and policy will follow the initial conference presentation which will once again feature a paper by this year’s TSI fellow at Peterhouse College, Dr Stephen M Gardiner, about his latest work in the related field of environmental ethics.

At first sight, the 2006 Act appeared to be an ethical step forward with its introduction of positive duties of care for animals’ welfare, building on the traditional, albeit significantly limited, anti-cruelty emphasis of earlier legislation. However, large areas of egregious and severe animal cruelty continue, ranging from the farming of hundreds of millions of pathologically fast-growing breeds of chickens each year to the selective breeding of dogs predisposed to inherited disorders such as brachycephaly (such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels as illustrated in the image above). These are signs of the systemic omissions in the Act and its implementation which have significantly undermined its protective effect for animals, such as:

• The lack of provisions establishing an institutional architecture to facilitate consistent, reliable enforcement
• The failure to enshrine a democratically accountable mechanism to define the threshold between (permitted) ‘necessary’ and (prohibited) ‘unnecessary’ suffering.

The fundamental systemic weaknesses in UK animal protection governance are also the biggest obstacle to the achievement of specific long-term animal protection group campaign goals, from a ban on routine mutilations of lambs and piglets (e.g. tail-docking), to the repeal of the blanket ‘secrecy’ clause in animal experimentation regulation (Section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986).

One of the most inexplicable policy failures has been successive governments’ refusal over 25 years to ban the practice of keeping primates as pets. So we are pleased that Rachel Hevesi from Wild Futures will be explaining to the conference how this campaign and the governments’ opposition has evolved over this period, as an indicative case study of the AWA’s implementation flaws.

To specifically address the overall legacy of the 2006 Act, leading animal protection solicitor Edie Bowles from the Animal Law Foundation will be discussing their pivotal new report ‘Putting Animals Back Into the Animal Welfare Act‘

In addition to understanding the consequences of the 2006 Act and UK animal policy in general, the conference aims to examine whether the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 is achieving its aim of holding the Westminster Government to account over whether it gives ‘due regard’ to animal welfare during policy-making. To that end, we are delighted to confirm that two members of the Animal Sentience Committee (ASC), Professors Christine Nicol and Anna Meredith OBE, with be addressing the conference on the subject: ‘From Sentience to Scrutiny: the Establishment, Work and (Emerging) Impact of the Animal Sentience Committee’.

The 2022 legislation and it’s creation of the ASC has the potential to contribute to a paradigm shift towards policy-making that genuinely does start to give the welfare of animals significant consideration and protection. So, to further explore how this historic shift could take place, we have invited Professor Jane Holder from University College London to present her emerging findings from her research project – part-funded by the CASJ – on the operation of the ASC and how lessons can be learned from environmental law and regulation about ensuring ‘due regard’ for animals through mechanisms such as policy impact assessments.

The conference presentations will culminate with a talk from TSI’s Gisella Marinuzzi on the key solution to systemic animal protection failures in the UK: she will be reporting on progress with the joint CASJ/TSI project to develop a proposal for a Governmental Animal Protection Commission aimed at achieving effective law enforcement and the fair representation of animals’ vital welfare interests (and related public concern) across the whole policy process. To help illuminate the essential role of such a reform and learn lessons for the UK initiative, the conference will also include a presentation  concerning the pioneering campaign for a similar central animal welfare regulation body by the Australian Alliance for Animals.

Finally, the conference will have the chance to digest and discuss the implications of the day’s proceeding with a participatory plenary session chaired by the CASJ’s Dr Dan Lyons.

• The latest version of the Conference Programme can be viewed here. Vegan lunch and refreshments will be provided.
• There is an option to attend remotely via Zoom (or similar) if you can’t make it in person. To register your attendance for free, please contact director@schweitzer.institute