Animal Welfare Act 2006
Information about the Act
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 
(275 KB), is available online, and is accompanied by a set of Explanatory Notes (164 KB)
Paper copies of the Act and its Explanatory Notes are available through The Stationery Office (TSO). You can order them online or via tel: 0870 600 5522.
The Act proceeded through Parliament as follows:
- It was first introduced in the House of Commons on 13 October 2005 (see news release)
- It completed Second Reading on 10 January (you can read a transcript of the debate on the UK Parliament website)
- The Commons Committee considering the Bill completed its work on 26 January (details of the proceedings are available)
- It had its Report Stage and Third Reading on 14 March (you can read a transcript of the debate on the UK Parliament website)
- It was introduced in the House of Lords on 15 March 2006
- Second Reading in the House of Lords took place on 18 April 2006. A transcript of the debate is available on the UK Parliament website
- Grand Committee in the House of Lords took place on 23 May, 24 May and 14 June
- Report stage in the House of Lords took place on 23 October
- Third Reading took place in the House of Lords on 1 November
- Commons Consideration of Lords Amendments took place on 6 November
- Royal Assent was granted on 8 November
Background
Defra launched a public consultation in January 2002 on reviewing the existing animal welfare legislation. The results were published in August 2002. For more information see Analysis of the Replies to the Public Consultation (1.8 MB. Warning: this is a large file).
In light of this consultation Defra published a draft Animal Welfare Bill on 14 July 2004. The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee completed pre-legislative scrutiny of the draft Bill and published its report in December 2004. The Government responded (192 KB) to this report on 3 March 2005, and has accepted many of its recommendations.
Further information about downloading or reading Adobe Acrobat documents is available on our help page.
- Animal Welfare Act 2006
- How does the Act affect me?
- Information for Local Authorities
- Secondary Legislation and Codes of Practice to be made under the Act
Page last modified: 21 May, 2008