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 new nationally-set licence conditions for businesses providing animal-related services.

We cannot change these conditions as they are set in the legislation. Businesses operating with these activities will need to comply with licensing conditions, and will be assessed before the licence is granted to make sure they can meet them.

Minimum standards specific to the activity being carried out must be met prior to a licence being granted. Where higher standards are met, a longer term licence will be issued which will save licensing fees for applicants who achieve and maintain high standards.

The minimum term of a licence will be one year. Where Higher Standards are achieved a two or three year licence will be granted.

All new applications will be rated following their initial inspection.

Application

An application must first be made using the relevant application form (see below). There is a fee for making an application, known as a part A fee. As part of the application, supporting documentation must be provided to show that the applicant can comply with licencing conditions.

Be aware that it is the applicant’s responsibility to provide this information as it demonstrates their competency. If advice is required from an officer, there is a fee of £68 per hour. If you wish for an officer to visit your premises to give advice prior to the inspection, a fee of £295 will apply.

Alternatively, you may decide to seek advice from an external consultant.

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 the applicant has the following:

A specialist knowledge in the species that they 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. The applicant should be able to demonstrate that they 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 be sure the licence holder can meet the new 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 below 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 the applicant is not satisfied with the decision, they can make the necessary improvements to address highlighted issues, and ask for a re-inspection.

Premises with lower star ratings

A premises with a lower star rating is not necessarily a premises to avoid as there are other factors that have to be considered, such as the length of time the licence holder has been operating. New businesses will be assessed as higher risk because there is no history of good practice that can be considered.

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.

Costs

You must pay an application fee, known as a Part A fee, when applying for a new application or a renewal application. Before a licence is then issued, you must the pay a Part B fee. Find below the fees for the relevant animal licensing activity.

For horse riding & dog breeding the local authority officer will be accompanied by a vet. This will incur an additional fee. If a business carries out more than one activity the fees will be applied as follows: Highest cost activity for animal licence will be charged at full plus 30% of the second (or second highest) cost activity. Any third or subsequent activity will be charged an additional 10% of the fee.