Create a national database of convicted animal abusers

The database should be accessible to relevant authorities and regulated organisations, including local councils, animal welfare charities, veterinary professionals, licenced breeders, rescue centres, and organisations responsible for rehoming animals. Animal cruelty is a serious offence.

Its purpose would be to prevent convicted animal abusers from owning, working with, breeding, or having unsupervised access to animals. It would also improve enforcement of animal disqualification orders, support safeguarding efforts, enhance public and animal safety, and strengthen existing animal welfare legislation. Appropriate safeguards should be included to ensure compliance with privacy and human rights laws. At present enforcement relies on fragmented records and inconsistent checks.

The Government does not think it would be appropriate to introduce a publicly assessable animal cruelty register. The majority of the population comply with our high animal welfare laws. In the upsetting and unacceptable instances where these laws are violated or repeatedly violated, we already have these offences recorded.

All prosecutions for animal cruelty offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 are currently stored on the Police National Computer. This information may be shared with appropriate organisations. In cases of concern, the information may be shared with the public when requested at the Police’s discretion.

Additionally, it is important that access to this information is restricted to protect the information from misuse while ensuring it is available for organisations with a justified need to access the information. This is consistent with the Government’s approach to the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme and Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs