I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (‘the Act’) to request information concerning enforcement of the laws governing the welfare of farmed animals.
Please could you provide the following information in relation to farmed animal species only during the period 1 January 2024 – 31 December 2024:
1. Do you enforce famed animal welfare legislation?
Yes.
2. Do you work with another local authority to conduct your farmed animal welfare enforcement and if so which one? Please also clarify whether the below data is likely to be duplicated by them?
Heart of the South West Trading Standards is a jointly commissioned service covering 4 local authority areas, Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.
This is aggregated across all 4 areas that we cover – Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay Councils won’t have any additional data as we do farm animal welfare related work for them.
3. How many of each of the following in your jurisdiction were inspected for welfare purposes one or more times? For the avoidance of doubt, if the same premise was inspected more than once, it should only be recorded once.
Farms; 213
Markets; 11
Borders; 0
Transport vehicles; 25
4. What was the total number of inspections that were conducted for welfare purposes in your jurisdiction at the following premises?
Farms; 248
Markets; 79
Borders; 0
Transport vehicles; 86
5. How many of these inspections found non-compliance with animal welfare law at the following premises?
Farms, use welfare enforcement codes; 123
Markets, use Welfare of Animals at Markets and Other Gatherings (WAMO) enforcement codes; 28
Borders; 0
Transport Vehicles; 36
6. Please list whether an improvement notice was issued under section 10 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 on each of the occasions an inspection revealed non-compliance at each of the following:
Farms; 0
Markets; 0
Borders; 0
Transport vehicles; 0
7. Please list whether a prosecution was commenced on each of the occasions an inspection revealed non-compliance with animal welfare law at each of the following:
Farms; 9
Markets; 0
Borders; 0
Transport Vehicles; 0
8. How many welfare complaints did you receive in relation to the following:
On-farm animal welfare; 527
Welfare at markets; 15
Welfare during transport; 320
Welfare at a border post; 0
9. Of the above complaints, how many led to an on-site inspection?
We cannot say that a visit was purely in response to a complaint, since officers visit farms and markets for additional reasons. Individual livestock markets are also visited a number of times per year.
10. How many prosecution proceedings did you commence for offences named in the Animal Welfare Act 2006 or the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007?
3
11. How many compliance notices were issued by your inspectors for failures to comply with the Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order 2006?
0.
12. How many prosecution proceedings did you commence for offences named in the Welfare of Animals at Markets Order 1990?
0.
13. How many prosecution proceedings did you commence for offences named in the The Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order 2006?
0.
14. How many individuals subject to any of the above enforcement actions had previously been convicted of an animal welfare offence?
0.
15. What is your body’s annual budget for farmed animal welfare enforcement? If you do not have a separate budget, please could you provide the budget for Trading Standards.
The net budget for the Trading Standards Service is £2,126,000
16. How many people do you employ to carry out farmed animal welfare inspections as part of their duties? If possible, please provide the response in FTE (Full time equivalent).
Heart of the South West Trading Standards employs 65.25 FTE. Of these, 9.25 FTE are employed in the Rural Team, which carries out the majority of our animal health and welfare work. However all officers are trained and able to effectively investigate any Animal Health and Welfare complaint should they be required.