UK Government rejects expert advice to address systemic animal welfare law enforcement failure

July 23, 2025

In February 2025, the Animal Sentience Committee (ASC)—established under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022—published a landmark report examining the government’s administration of animal law enforcement. The ASC sees this report as a critical element of its statutory duty to hold the government to account over how it considers the pain and suffering that animals are expected to endure because of government policies.

In its report, the ASC arrived at a damning conclusion regarding the current system of animal welfare law enforcement:

‘… the ASC considers that an effective, structured, fair and integrated system of animal welfare surveillance and enforcement is lacking… The issues surrounding animal welfare compliance and enforcement relate to inconsistencies in detection of offences, complexity of the legislative environment, resources, lack of coordinated inter-agency response, variable enforcer training and expertise, and transparency over the effectiveness of adequate reporting and enforcement.’

To overcome these systemic flaws in law enforcement, the ASC recommended the creation of a central body responsible for directing and coordinating animal welfare law and surveillance. If this reform was implemented, it would represent an historic advance in animal welfare protection. Such a ‘central body’ would be a step towards a statutory Animal Protection Commission, whose powers would go wider than the central body envisaged by the ASC.

The Government response was laid before Parliament on 16 June 2025. Unfortunately, the Government rejected the key ‘central body’ proposal without detailed justification. Animal protection faces a Catch-22 situation whereby the reforms required for government policy to start taking animal welfare seriously are unlikely to be  supported by a governmental system that is institutionally neglectful of animal welfare.

The CASJ has recently partnered with The Schweitzer Institute to research and advocate for an Animal Protection Commission. We have issued the following joint statement on the report and Government response.