Defra consultation: Pet travel: Non-Commercial Movement of Pet Animals Order 2011 review

23 September 2016

Defra is currently carrying out a review of UK legislation in relation to Pet Travel* which sets out how the Pet Travel Scheme Regulation (EU No. 576/2013) operates in Great Britain.

This is part of the statutory process to review the effectiveness of the legislation and the consultation is seeking for views on whether:

  • the Order has met its objectives;
  • the Order’s objectives remain appropriate; and if so
  • the Order’s objectives could be achieved in a less burdensome way.

This current consultation is not about potential changes to the legalisation following Brexit although evidence collected as part of this review may be relevant to future discussions.

We are aware that the changes to the Pet Travel Scheme, introduced in January 2012 and December 2014, have significantly increased the number of animals, particularly puppies, entering the UK including those for sale which should not be coming in under the Pet Travel Scheme. We also know that a significant number of veterinary practices have been presented with animals that do not fully comply with the requirements of the Pet Travel Scheme and that contacting the appropriate department in the Local Authority is not always easy.
We would therefore encourage you to take the opportunity to feed into this consultation and encourage any clients who have experience of travelling to and from Europe with their pets to do so.

The consultation is available online at: https://consult.defra.gov.uk/exotic-disease-control/petorderreview and is open until 27th October 2016.

The BSAVA will also be submitting a response and if anyone would prefer to send comments through us please email Sally Everitt (Head of Scientific Policy) s.everitt@bsava.com by 20th October.

*The Non-Commercial Movement of Pet Animals Order 2011 as amended by the Non-Commercial Movement of Pet Animals (Amendment) Order 2014