Animal activities licence | PLYMOUTH.GOV.UK

Animal welfare

The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018

Licenses for the following activities must be obtained when carried out as a business:

Selling Animals as Pets
Providing or Arranging Boarding in Kennels for Dogs
Providing or Arranging Home Boarding for Dogs
Providing or Arranging Day Care for Dogs
Providing or Arranging Boarding for Cats
Breeding of Dogs
Keeping or Training Animals for Exhibition
Hiring Out of Horses

Licenses are known as an 'animal activity licence', with nationally-set licence conditions for businesses providing animal-related services.

The minimum term of a licence is one year. If higher standards are achieved a two or three year licence will be granted.

All new applications will be rated following their initial inspection.

Application

Apply using the relevant application form. There is a fee for making an application, known as a 'part A' fee. As part of the application, you need to provide supporting documentation to show that you can comply with licencing conditions.

If you need advice from us, there is a fee. If you want us to visit your premises to give advice before the inspection, a fee will apply.

Warning If you do not have the necessary paperwork in place or your premises are not structurally compliant, then your application may be refused. At that point your application fee is forfeit and you will need to re-apply in the future and pay a new fee.

See our checklists to help ensure you have the correct paperwork before you apply:

Selling animals and pets checklist

pdf, 148.97 KB

Dog breeders checklist

pdf, 187.46 KB

Dog day care checklist

pdf, 175.96 KB

Homeboarder checklist

pdf, 172 KB

Inspections

All premises will be inspected before a licence is granted. The inspector will be looking to make sure you have:

Specialist knowledge in the species that you are caring for and a clear understanding of its needs and welfare. This would include the animals' mental and physical health, feeding and knowledge of environmental enrichment. You should be able to demonstrate that you have researched and followed expert guidance in order to carry out their role
Comprehensive records that contain all the information required by the conditions that apply to their particular activities
An understanding of the risks involved in caring for the animal, including an extensive risk assessment and written policies and procedures that are reviewed regularly. These documents should be available for the Inspector to examine
training procedures in place to make sure staff know what is expected of them, and clear evidence of good supervision of staff

The premises itself will also be assessed so we can check it meets the laws relating to the physical environment in which the animals will be kept.

WarningBefore your inspection we would recommend that you carry out and fill in your own audit prior to the inspection using the appropriate inspection proforma form so that you can identify any improvements you need to make ahead of your inspection.

After an inspection, a risk rating and star rating will be awarded. Low-risk premises can attain up to five stars, and premises that have been assessed as higher risk can be awarded up to four stars. If you are not satisfied with the decision, you can make the necessary improvements to address the issues, and ask for a re-inspection.

Appeals

You can dispute a star rating given to your business if you feel it does not reflect the animal welfare standards and risk level of the business at the time of the inspection.

You cannot appeal if your business has made improvements and wishes to be reassessed, in this case you will need to apply for re-inspection.

Appeals must be made in writing within 21 calendar days of you receiving your licence.