Defra is working to ensure owners of banned breed dogs can remain compliant with the legal requirement to hold third-party public liability insurance beyond 1 July 2026. The department is working closely with Dogs Trust, the Devolved Governments and the insurance sector to find a workable solution for dog owners.

Defra has published guidance on GOV.UK and contacted all registered owners to inform them that no action is required at this stage. Further guidance will be made available on GOV.UK in June.

Defra is working to ensure owners of banned breed dogs can remain compliant with the legal requirement to hold third-party public liability insurance beyond 1 July 2026. The department is working closely with Dogs Trust, the Devolved Governments and the insurance sector to find a workable solution for dog owners.

Defra has published guidance on GOV.UK and contacted all registered owners to inform them that no action is required at this stage. Further guidance will be made available on GOV.UK in June.

Licensed establishments are responsible for maintaining records on the source, use and final disposal of protected animals bred, kept or used for regulated procedures.

Under Standard Condition 8 of the Establishment Licence, all licensed establishments those records must be kept in a format acceptable to the Secretary of State. Compliance is checked through announced and unannounced audits by the Home Office Regulator. MBR Acres was most recently audited in November 2025, when inspectors reviewed the establishment’s records, including those relating to the source, use and disposal of animals. The Home Office does not hold this data centrally.

The Home Office publishes annual statistics on the use of animals in scientific procedures. The annual statistics can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/scientific-procedures-on-living-animals-great-britain-2024/annual-statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals-great-britain-2024

The Home Office publishes non-technical summaries for each project licence granted under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. These are published quarterly and include information on the species and the approved number of animals expected to be used over the lifetime of the project licence. These are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/non-technical-summaries-of-projects-granted-under-aspa.

The Home Office also publishes annual statistics on the use of animals in science as Accredited Official Statistics. These contain information on the number of procedures conducted, including breakdowns by species of animals (including beagles) and by purpose. The statistics report both the total number of procedures conducted and the number of animals used for the first time in a given year. The statistics are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals.

This Government remains firmly committed to working towards the phasing out of animals in science. The strategy, ‘Replacing animals in science’, sets specific targets to reduce the use of dogs by 2030, while ensuring the UK continues to support safe and effective scientific and medical research.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of animals bred by individual establishments. Responsibility for recording such information rests with the licensed establishments themselves.

Under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, licensed establishments are required to maintain records, in a format acceptable to the Secretary of State, of the source, use and final disposal of all protected animals bred, kept or used at the establishment for regulated activity.

The Home Office publishes annual statistics on the use of animals in scientific procedures, which include information on procedures involving dogs. In addition, project licence applications under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 are required to include prospective estimates of the number of animals expected to be used. This information is included in the published non-technical summaries of project licences granted available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/non-technical-summaries-of-projects-granted-under-aspa.

The Home Office does not centrally record the number of applications withdrawn, nor amendments to project licence applications by reference to specific issues raised during or after assessment, including the availability of non‑animal alternative methods. The Regulator advises that withdrawn applications are very rare, while amendments to applications form a routine part of the assessment process.

All applications are subject to multiple stages of review prior to submission to the Home Office, including the delivery of legal responsibilities of the applicant to the principles of replacement, scrutiny by an establishment’s Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Body and sign off by the establishment licence holder. This means that proposals where non-animal alternatives are available will not be progressed for application.

Applications may be amended and it is common for there to be at least one iteration of the original application before it can be granted. This would be based on discussions between the Regulator and the applicant and could be about any aspect of the licence. It is also common for amendments to be made to licences after they are granted.

In 2024, 472 licences were granted and 905 amendments made (post grant). Data for 2025 will be published in the Animals in Science Regulation Unit’s annual report.

The Home Office has not made an estimate of the number of proposed projects involving dogs that do not proceed to licence application stage following review by Animal Welfare and Ethical Review Bodies (AWERBs) due to the availability of non-animal alternative methods.

Project licence applicants are, in law, responsible for robustly considering the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement (the 3Rs) when developing proposals before submission to the establishment AWERB. AWERBs operate within establishments and are a further internal check on advising the establishment licence holder and other duty holders on the application of the principles of the 3Rs before any project licence application is submitted to the Home Office.

Dog breeders licensed under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations are prohibited from breeding dogs if it can be reasonably expected that on the basis of their genotype, phenotype or health, this would lead to welfare problems for the mother or the puppies.

In the Animal Welfare Strategy, the Government committed to launch a consultation on dog breeding reform to improve health and welfare, and also to improve understanding of the size, scale and current management practices related to cat breeding, and consider any further steps which may improve welfare practices in the cat breeding sector.

The strategy was developed following engagement with key stakeholders and consideration of sector evidence, such as the Animal Welfare Committee’s reports on canine and feline breeding practices.

Defra works with a range of sector organisations who are raising public awareness of the health risks associated with brachycephalic animals. This includes via tools such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare’s Innate Health Assessment, Royal Kennel Club’s Respiratory Function Grading scheme assessment for brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome and the Canine and Feline Sector Group Code of Practice for Dog Breeding. Many organisations have public facing campaigns to promote awareness such as Cats Protection, and the UK Brachycephalic Working Groups ‘stop and think’ campaign to prioritise health when purchasing dogs.

All project licence applications, including service licences which use specially protected species such as dogs and non-human primates, are subject to a rigorous harm-benefit analysis (HBA), required under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA). The HBA ensures that a project is only granted where a Home Office Inspector is satisfied that the likely harms to animals, including pain, suffering, distress and any lasting harm, are justified by the expected benefits for humans, animals or the environment.

Under ASPA, projects proposing the use of specially protected species may only be authorised where no animal of lower sentience can be used to achieve the scientific objectives. In all cases, the principles of replacement, reduction and refinement (the 3Rs) must be fully applied. This means that animal use is permitted only where no validated alternative exists, the minimum number of animals is used, and the most refined methods are used to minimise harm.

The Home Office publishes annual statistics of scientific procedures on living animals in Great Britain, which break down procedures by species, type of procedure, and actual severity experienced by animals. They are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-of-scientific-procedures-on-living-animals. Information on the severity of procedures involving NHPs and dogs is set out in Table 3.1, with severity categorised under ASPA as non-recovery, mild, moderate or severe.

Additionally, the Home Office expects to respond to recommendations from the Animals in Science Committee on the use of NHPs in service licences, which is aimed at further strengthening protections for NHPs used in science for service licences.

Defra is working to ensure owners of banned breed dogs can remain compliant with the legal requirement to hold third-party public liability insurance beyond 1 July 2026.

Defra has published guidance on the GOV.UK page and contacted all registered owners to inform them that no action is required at this stage. Defra will share further guidance which will be published on GOV.UK in early June.

His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) currently deploys 492 licensed search dogs across prisons in England and Wales. These dogs form a key part of the Department’s approach to tackling the supply of illicit items, including drugs, mobile telephones and other contraband, and are used proactively across the estate.

Decisions on deployment, and any increase in search dog capacity, are made at local and regional level, enabling prisons to respond flexibly to their specific security risks and operational challenges. This includes the ability to scale up provision where intelligence or demand indicates a need.

HMPPS keeps this capability under regular review as part of its wider security strategy and will continue to assess whether additional resources are required to meet any emerging threats.