Consultee letter - Consultation on proposals for welfare of racing greyhounds regulations

Dear Consultee

1. I am writing to invite views on Defra’s proposed regulations for the welfare of racing greyhounds.

The proposed regulations would be made under section 13 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the “2006 Act”) which provides that the appropriate national authority, in England the Secretary of State, may by regulation make such provision for a licensing scheme  for the purpose of promoting the welfare of animals for which a person is responsible, or the progeny of such animals.

These regulations will implement minimum welfare standards for all greyhound racing tracks in England.  However, the Government has taken the view that any track that is regulated by an organisation or body that obtains or holds accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) and applies at a minimum the standards set out in these regulations should be exempt from the licensing requirement contained in these regulations.  UKAS is the sole national accreditation body recognised by government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide inspection services.  Accreditation by UKAS demonstrates the competence, impartiality and performance capability of these evaluators. 

Under these proposed regulations, any track that is not regulated by a body that has UKAS accreditation in respect of the enforcement of the standards set out in these proposals will need to be licensed by their local authority.  These regulations will introduce a licensing scheme with accompanying licensing conditions to ensure that all sectors of the industry have to abide by minimum welfare standards.

These regulations will implement provisions in England only. As animal welfare is a devolved matter, Scotland and Wales may make their own legislation in this area. Defra works closely with the Devolved Administrations on animal welfare legislation.

This consultation is made in line with the requirements of section 13 of the 2006 Act, namely that the Secretary of State will consult such persons appearing to him to represent any interests concerned as he considers appropriate.  Once the consultation process has been completed, the regulations will be finalised and laid before both Houses of Parliament for approval.  Should Parliament approve the regulations, they will enter into force on a common commencement day – likely to be either 6 April or 1 October 2010 but Defra will issue a press release and information will be made available in advance on the Defra website (www.defra.gov.uk) about this date.

2. The following documents may be found on Defra’s website:
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/greyhound-welfare/index.htm

3. We welcome your views and comments on the proposals.  If you wish to obtain a copy of this consultation, please contact Peter Hall on telephone: 020 7238 5981.

4. The attached list of consultees is not exhaustive - we welcome comments from anyone.  If there is any organisation that is not included on the list that you think would like to contribute then please make them aware of this letter and enclosures, which can be accessed through the Defra web site.

Responses

5. Please send responses to either:

Peter Hall
Defra, Animal Welfare Act Implementation Team
Area 8B
9 Millbank
c/o 17 Smith Square
London W1P 3JR

Telephone: 020 7238 5981

Or email: Animalwelfareconsultations@defra.gsi.gov.uk clearly stating the name of the consultation in the subject header eg: Regulations – Greyhounds.

6. Responses should be received by 22 July 2009.

Consultation Criteria

7. This consultation is in line with the Code of Practice on Consultations. This can be found at www.berr.gov.uk/bre

8. When this consultation ends, we intend to put a copy of the responses in the Defra library at Ergon House, London. This is so that the public can see them.  Also, members of the public may ask for a copy of responses under freedom of information legislation.

9. If you do not want your response - including your name, contact details and any other personal information – to be publicly available, please say so clearly in writing when you send your response to the consultation.  Please note, if your computer automatically includes a confidentiality disclaimer, that won’t count as a confidentiality request.

10. Please explain why you need to keep details confidential.  We will take your reasons into account if someone asks for this information under freedom of information legislation.  But, because of the law, we cannot promise that we will always be able to keep those details confidential.

We will summarise all responses and place this summary on our website at www.defra.gov.uk/resources/consultation/index.htm. This summary will include a list of names of organisations that responded but not people’s personal names, addresses or other contact details. 

To see consultation responses and summaries, please contact the library at:
Defra
Information Resource Centre
Lower Ground Floor
Ergon House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR

Telephone: 020-7238-6575
Email:  defra.library@defra.gsi.gov.uk

If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to Marjorie Addo, Defra’s Consultation Co-ordinator, Area 7C Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P 3JR, or email consultation.coordinator@defra.gsi.gov.uk.

If you have any queries please contact us using the details in paragraph 5 above.

Yours sincerely

Henry Hoppe

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Page published: 30 April 2009