Animal health: movement restrictions

Abattoir to farm: Exceptional Movement Licence

The current Great Britain policy is that due to animal welfare and the risk of disease spread, movements of live animals from an abattoir to a farm (“movements to live”) are not allowed except in very specific extreme circumstances.

Movements from an abattoir in Scotland to a farm anywhere in Great Britain require an individual licence. Requests are considered on a case by case basis.

The process is as follows:

1. The licence request must be made by the Food Business Operator (FBO) to Food Standards Scotland’s (FSS) Official Veterinarian (OV).* 
   *Please note, no requests should be made directly by FBOs or farmers to the Scottish Government Animal Health and Welfare (AH&W) Division, the Animal Plant Health Agency (APHA), the Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division or the Local Authority. All requests must be made through the FSS.
2. The OV will consider the request and potentially discuss with the Veterinary Adviser in FSS. If the OV considers the request proportionate, the OV will then make the request for the licence to:

• ​​​​​If the farm of destination is in Scotland: Scottish Government AH&W Division; animal.health@gov.scot.
• If the farm of destination is in England: APHA; customeradvice@apha.gov.uk. APHA will then discuss with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) who will consider the request. Defra indicates that they are unlikely to approve these type of requests.

Where animals are to be moved from an abattoir back to a farm:

• The FBO must first inform the OV.
• Completion of Annex 4, by the OV remains mandatory for cattle, sheep and goats.
• Movements of pigs back to farm are generally not permitted.