Only 2.5 per cent of UK farms are inspected on average annually and fewer than one per cent of cases of non-compliance with animal welfare law are being prosecuted.

The Enforcement Problem report reveals that the system designed to protect farmed animals continues to be unfit for purpose.

The report gathered data from the 176 regulatory bodies responsible for overseeing farmed animal welfare across the UK. Some key findings from the data show that on average in 2022 and 2023:

• only 2.5 per cent of the more than 300,000 farms in the UK were inspected;
• there was only one local authority inspector for approximately 878 farms in England, Scotland, and Wales;
• approximately 22 per cent of inspections on farms identified non-compliance with animal welfare law;
• fewer than one per cent of cases of non-compliance detected through inspections were prosecuted; and
• of those subject to enforcement action on farms, at markets and borders, and during transport, approximately 14 per cent had previously committed an animal welfare offence.

This report followed a previous report published in 2022 by the Animal Law Foundation and Animal Equality, which also revealed widespread and systemic underenforcement, with three per cent of farms inspected on average annually and less than one per cent of complaints prosecuted.

While previously the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic could have provided a possible explanation for low inspection rates and poor enforcement, the new data reveals that the problem persists to this day. The reality is a systemic failure of farmed animal welfare enforcement mechanisms.

The Animal Law Foundation attributes the low rates of inspections and enforcement to a number of factors. These include the fragmented and opaque regulatory framework, which makes it difficult to identify the public body responsible for monitoring and enforcement, and in turn to hold them to account.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Welsh and Scottish governments, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) have overall responsibility for farm animal welfare law and policy in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, respectively.

In practice, with the exception of DAERA, they delegate day to day enforcement of the relevant laws to local authorities and executive agencies, such as the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), the Food Standards Agency (FSA), and Food Standards Scotland (FSS).

By way of case studies, the report highlights key animal welfare issues, where enforcement issues are prevalent and have significant repercussions for the animals affected.

For example, it is estimated that 37.7 million farmed salmon are produced each year in Scotland. According to the law, fish must have their welfare needs met and they must also be spared unnecessary suffering. Although numerous investigations on fish farms have revealed a range of health and welfare issues, to date there has never been a prosecution or formal notice issued under the relevant laws.

Edie Bowles, solicitor and executive director of the Animal Law Foundation, said: “Our data shows that the current system is failing animals. Animals continue to be mistreated by those who have a legal responsibility to take care of them and rather than be held accountable for their actions, apparent complacency and disregard for those legal protections stops this from happening on a system-wide basis.

“It is vital that the protections available to animals mean something in practice. Asking for laws to matter is not a big ask, it is simply the fulfilment of promises already made to the public when Parliament enacted those laws in the first place.”