Consultation on cat and dog microchipping legislation in England

Overview

We are seeking your views on potential changes to microchipping legislation. This covers both the new mandatory cat microchipping requirements, as well as improvements to the current dog microchipping system so they work as effectively as possible in reuniting pets with their owners. 

The Government has extended the consultation on Dog and Cat microchipping in England by three days, to ensure the widest possible range of views are taken into account. The consultation will now close at 11.45pm on Friday 20 May 2022.

Why your views matter

We are seeking your views proposed solutions which will help us to understand the impacts of the suggested regulatory changes.

These proposed changes aim to improve the operation of the microchipping database system, making it easier to identify pet keepers and to reunite pets with their keepers. This will mean reduced costs to local authorities, vets and animal shelters, as well benefiting animal welfare and deterring pet theft.

What happens next

Responses to this consultation will be used to inform decisions on changes to microchipping legislation in England. We will not introduce new secondary legislation applying to cat and dog microchipping until we have considered responses to this consultation.

A summary of responses to this consultation will be published on the government website at: https://www.gov.uk/defra. An annex to the consultation summary will list all organisations that responded but will not include personal names, addresses or other contact details.

Defra may publish the content of your response to this consultation to make it available to the public without your personal name and private contact details (for example, home address, email address).

If you click on ‘Yes’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, you are asked to state clearly what information you would like to be kept confidential and explain your reasons for confidentiality. The reason for this is that information in responses to this consultation may be subject to release to the public and other parties in accordance with the access to information law (these are primarily the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)).

We have obligations, mainly under the EIRs, FOIA and DPA, to disclose information to particular recipients or to the public in certain circumstances. In view of this, your explanation of your reasons for requesting confidentiality for all or part of your response would help us balance these obligations for disclosure against any obligation of confidentiality. If we receive a request for the information that you have provided in your response to this consultation, we will take full account of your reasons for requesting confidentiality of your response, but we cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances.

There may be occasions when Defra will share the information you provide in response to the consultation, including any personal data, with external analysts. This is for the purposes of consultation response analysis and provision of a report of the summary of responses only.