Animal health and welfare

Animal health and welfare policy includes action to help prevent, plan for and deal with disease, including veterinary surveillance, controls on livestock movement, identification and traceability, animal by-products and the control of imports and exports.

Actions

We:

• ensure Scotland has appropriate contingency plans to deal with any animal disease outbreaks

• are working to improve animal welfare by placing a duty of care on the people responsible

• ensure animal by-products comply with regulations, and act as competent authority in certain circumstances, to protect animal and public health

• control the movement of animals via livestock identification, imports and exports

• carry out a range of animal welfare inspections to help protect consumers interests and maintain high standards of welfare

Background

Animal health and welfare policy, with the exception of the veterinary profession, veterinary medicines and international negotiations, is devolved to Scottish Ministers. We work closely with a range of stakeholders, other UK administrations, regulatory and enforcement authorities to develop evidence based policies.

The Animal Health and Welfare in the Livestock Industry Strategy: 2016 to 2021 is a five-year strategy, tailored to Scotland's needs. The strategy was prepared in consultation with farming organisations, animal welfare organisations and veterinary scientists.

The Animal health and welfare framework 2019 to 2020 sets out a risk based approach to the duties carried out by local authorities in Scotland.

Review of field delivery of animal health services in Scotland 

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is an agency of Defra working on behalf of Defra, and both Scottish and Welsh Governments.  On behalf of Scottish Ministers they are the lead operation partner responsible for:

• identifying and controlling notifiable endemic and exotic diseases in animals and aspects of surveillance for new and emerging pests and diseases
• scientific research in areas such as bacterial, viral, prion and parasitic diseases and vaccines; they act as an international reference laboratory for many farm animal diseases
• facilitating international trade in animals and products of animal origin
• regulating the safe disposal of animal by-products to reduce the risk of potentially dangerous substances entering the food chain

The budget to support the delivery of Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) activities in Scotland was devolved to Scottish Government in April 2011 with a condition that the Agency would continue to be funded to deliver these services for a period of three years.  Given it was approaching nine years since the devolution of that budget Scottish Ministers appointed Professor Charles Milne to carry out an independent review of the animal health and welfare services delivered by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) in Scotland. 

The review of field delivery of animal health services in Scotland was received in early January 2020 and Ministers approved work to begin scoping out and evaluating a possible Scottish veterinary service. Due to other competing priorities, work has been paused and will resume in 2021.

Bills and legislation

Animal disease control and welfare is subject to a range of legislation. Relevant law is detailed in the corresponding section.

Contact

Email: animal.health@gov.scot

Telephone: 0300 244 9874

Post:  
Scottish Government   
Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate  
Animal Health and Welfare  
P Spur - Saughton House  
Broomhouse Drive  
Edinburgh  
EH11 3XD