In May 2021, the Government proposed the Action Plan for Animal Welfare which set out to vastly improve animal welfare in the UK.   

The Government went on to introduce the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill in June 2021, which set out to improve welfare standards for kept animals in Great Britain.  

This would be ground-breaking Bill set out to ban the live export of farmed animals (a key Brexit promise), tackle puppy smuggling, banning primates as pets and improving the standards of zoos.   

Despite countless promises, the Bill stalled, and eventually in May 2023 it was dropped altogether.  

During this time, we have seen animal welfare be continuously deprioritised and seemingly be forgotten. Along with the Kept Animals Bill; the government-backed Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Private Members Bill also stalled in the House of Lords in 2023, with a second iteration of this falling again in 2024. We are also still awaiting the published responses from a government consultation in 2021 on the sale and trade of fur in the UK.  

In July 2025 we saw twenty Members of Parliament gathered in Westminster to debate a public petition calling for an end to the use of cages in farming. The Government committed to deliver “the most ambitious plans in a generation to improve animal welfare.” and secured cross-party support, but whether that ambition is matched by policy will become clear when the Government publishes its animal welfare strategy later in 2025. 

But this topic is just one of many we want to see addressed.

 As part of a long-term animal welfare strategy, we want to see the following reflected in all political parties upcoming election manifestos: 

• An end to puppy and kitten smuggling
• An end to caged keeping of farm animals
• No more imports and sales of fur or foie gras
• A ban on the import of hunting trophies
• Core animal welfare standards in trade
• Compulsory animal welfare labelling on food items
• National food and procurement policies that commit to “less and better” animal products