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Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021

Contents

Policy background

  1. This Act amends the Animal Welfare Act 2006 ("the 2006 Act"). Ahead of the Act coming into force on 29 June 2021, the 2006 Act set out a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine for the more serious 'prevention of harm' offences. There are five such offences under section 32(1) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006:
    1. causing unnecessary suffering (section 4, Animal Welfare Act 2006);
    2. carrying out a non-exempted mutilation (section 5, Animal Welfare Act 2006);
    3. docking the tail of a dog except where permitted (section 6(1) and 6(2), Animal Welfare Act 2006);
    4. administering a poison to an animal (section 7, Animal Welfare Act 2006); and
    5. involvement in an animal fight (section 8, Animal Welfare Act 2006).
  2. There were a number of cases related to these offences in which judges expressed a desire to impose a higher penalty than that which the 2006 Act provided for, prior to this Act passing. There was a particular desire to increase the penalties available in the case of crimes that relate to deliberate, calculating and sadistic behaviour.
  3. Members of Parliament, wider stakeholders and the public also sought to increase maximum penalties for animal welfare offences so that they exceeded the European average at the time of 2.04 years. The Act meets both of these aims by increasing the maximum penalties for the most serious offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to five years and/or an unlimited fine.
  4. The increase in maximum penalties does not apply to those offences listed in section 32(2) of the Animal Welfare Act 2006: not taking reasonable steps to ensure welfare (section 9); breach of a licence condition (section 13(6)); and breach of a disqualification order (section 34(9)). These offences are generally considered less serious, and rarely receive the existing maximum penalty. Moreover, the level of fine applied to these offences increased since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, which converted existing level 5 fines into unlimited fines.
  5. The draft sentencing sections were published for public consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny on 12 December 2017 as part of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill. The consultation closed on 31 January 2018 and the summary of responses document published on 7 August 2018. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) received 9,084 direct responses to the consultation. 70% of respondents agreed with the new maximum penalties. In the summary of responses document, Government committed to bring forward the sentencing sections in a separate Bill as recommended by the EFRA Committee's scrutiny report on the Bill.

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