Moving animals across borders Contents

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Background

1.The UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement’s transition period, during which the UK was no longer a member of the EU but remained a member of the single market and customs union, concluded on 1 January 2021. The processes for managing the movement of animals between Great Britain and the European Union that had been relied upon for many years came to an end. Owners could no longer use pet passports to take their pets to Europe and horses could not be moved under the Tripartite Agreement.1 Significant questions have been raised about the effectiveness and proportionality of the replacement system of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) controls and the UK’s ‘part 2 listed status’ under the EU’s pet travel scheme.

2.Leaving the EU, and its Pet Travel Scheme (PETS), means that the UK may now set its own rules around the movements of companion animals. Under PETS an individual may travel with up to five animals. In practice, this means a vehicle with five passengers can legally move 25 cats, dogs or ferrets at one time. It is well documented that this regulation has been exploited by pet smugglers, who are able to easily move large numbers of animals illegally into the UK under the guise of being their own personal pets.2 This practice has been a longstanding concern for animal welfare organisations. Furthermore, there have been reports that the pandemic has significantly increased demand for smuggled pets.3

3.In December 2020 Defra published the ‘Improvements to Animal Welfare in Transport’ consultation.4 This proposed a ban on the export of animals for slaughter and fattening amongst several further measures, such as new species-dependent maximum journey times. Many of these proposals were heavily criticised by the farming industry.5

4.We therefore launched our inquiry into Moving Animal Across Borders in January 2021, with the following terms of reference:6

a)Does the UK have sufficient resources and capacity to certify, record and inspect animal movements across its borders?

b)How effectively will the UK be able to conduct animal disease surveillance and respond to outbreaks?

c)What impact will the new UK-EU agreement have on moving animals across the Irish border and between GB and the EU/Northern Ireland?7

d)How should the Government balance animal health and welfare alongside economic interests?

e)What impact will ending live animal exports for slaughter and fattening have on UK farmers, processors and other businesses?

f)Does the UK have sufficient capacity to slaughter and process animals that are currently exported? If not, what could be improved?

g)How will Great Britain leaving the EU Pet Travel Scheme affect both legal and illegal movements of animals between GB and the EU/NI?

h)Are the current rules and checks on the movement of domestic animals strong enough to prevent illegal activity? If not, what could be improved?

i)What impact will the EU Animal Health Law have on the movement of equines between GB and the EU/NI from April 2021?

j)Will the rules and checks on the movement of equines be strong enough to prevent illegal activity? If not, what could be improved?

5.We received over 60 written submissions and held four oral evidence sessions, hearing from witnesses including animal welfare activists, farming organisations, the equine industry, and the Government. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to our inquiry.