Animal health and welfare in the livestock industry 2016 to 2024 - Strategy review

Theme 4: Regulatory impact

Action 8: the Scottish Government will seek to reduce Europe's regulatory burden in recognition of Scotland's good animal health record and disease-free status.

Animal health policy is fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament, with Scottish Ministers responsible for maintaining Scotland’s good animal health record and disease-free status. Following the UK’s departure from the EU, Scottish Ministers remain committed to aligning with EU legislation wherever possible.

Action 9: the Scottish Government will work with APHA, local authorities and other partners to review the current approach to enforcing livestock animal health and welfare regulation, and will make proposals for improvements.

Legislation and enforcement framework

We are committed to maintaining and enhancing our legislative and enforcement framework to promote animal health and welfare. As previously noted, the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020 contains a provision to introduce fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for offences relating to animal health and welfare.

This provision will enable enforcement authorities to issue FPNs in relation to relevant, less serious animal health offences. FPNs will provide an additional enforcement mechanism that can be delivered without the intervention of the Scottish courts, while still delivering a meaningful penalty for breaches of animal health regulations. A public consultation has been completed in 2025 to gather views on the design of any FPN scheme and the specific offences to which it may apply. FPNs will be introduced through secondary legislation.

In addition, the SAWC has established a working group to examine local authority enforcement of animal health and welfare legislation. The group is expected to report its findings in 2025.

Updates on avian influenza legislation

In December 2023, The Avian Influenza and Influenza of Avian Origin in Mammals (Scotland) Amendment Order 2023 came into force. This legislation enables Scottish Ministers to apply more proportionate disease control measures in response to confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) at premises housing backyard poultry flocks, where the risk of further spread of the virus is deemed as low. Specifically, it allows certain premises with pet poultry to be designated as ‘special category premises’, subject to less stringent disease control measures.

Additional amendments, informed by lessons learnt during the 2021-2023 HPAI outbreak seasons, include:

• a definition of ‘game birds’ to clarify which species are subject to restrictions within controlled zones
• definitions of ‘brood-and-move poultry’ and ‘ready-to-lay poultry’ to allow for licensed movements of these birds in certain circumstances

In light of recent occurrences of HPAI in wild mammals in the UK and internationally, the legislation also added a requirement to report any suspicion of influenza of avian origin in a mammal to an authorised veterinary inspector.

Diseases continue to emerge and evolve, impacting both disease control measures and trade. Consequently, legislation must be regularly updated to reflect new scientific knowledge and emerging circumstances. For example, plans are in place to amend The Avian Influenza and Influenza of Avian Origin in Mammals (Scotland) Order 2006 to provide new powers to address influenza of avian origin in non-avian captive mammals. This follows recent cases of such influenza in dairy cattle in the United States.

To support the smooth operation of trade, it is also essential that legislation is updated regularly to remain aligned with trading partners.

Disease control and contingency planning

In August 2022, three updated contingency plans were republished:

• the Scottish Regional Resilience Partnership (RRP) Framework for Exotic Notifiable Diseases
• the Scottish Government Exotic Diseases of Animals Contingency Framework Plan
• the Exotic Diseases of Animals Communications Strategy

These plans provide the working framework for dealing with exotic diseases and are regularly reassessed in light of lessons learnt from exercises and real-world outbreaks.

In October 2024, the North and West RRP Animal Health Sub-Groups were informed that they would be merged into a single national group. The restructuring aims to continue to promote co-operation between local authorities and other operational partners, in both preparedness and response to notifiable animal disease outbreaks.

In recent times, we have raised awareness and delivered training to RRP groups on key exotic diseases, including avian influenza, rabies and BTV.

Data systems

Development of the Scottish Kept Bird Register and Avian Registration Hub

In May 2022, as part of the Avian Influenza Lessons Identified project following the 2021-2022 UK-wide avian influenza outbreak, the future of the Great Britain Poultry Register was considered. A subsequent Great Britain-wide consultation concluded that moving to registration of single birds was necessary. Legislation was amended by all Great Britain administrations to reflect the new requirement.

To accompany this development, the online Scottish Kept Bird Register was launched on 1 September 2024. This platform allows bird keepers to login and update their details at any time, removing the need for a paper-based system. By registering the location of their bird(s), bird keepers receive vital biosecurity guidance to help protect their flocks, as well as disease control information in case their premises are affected by a disease control zone. The register also supports government efforts to contain and eradicate notifiable avian diseases, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza and Newcastle Disease.

The Animal Health and Welfare Division is responsible for the inspection and enforcement of legislation, including welfare standards, on poultry farms. To enhance this function, a new cloud-based, customer-accessible database – the Avian Registration Hub (ARH) – was launched on 1 July 2024. This system provides a live, on-farm accessible database that supports poultry businesses and Scottish Government inspectors, by improving the tracking, monitoring and enforcement of poultry business inspections.

Lessons identified: we must continuously update legislation and contingency plans to keep pace with rapidly changing animal diseases. Pressure on Scottish Government officials, Scottish Parliament time, regulatory and enforcement body’s resources, particularly local authorities, should drive a prioritisation approach.

Action 10: the Scottish Government in conjunction with partners will review animal traceability with a view to strengthening and enhancing the current system of traceability to benefit health, welfare, meat quality and environmental gains along the entire supply chain.

Livestock identification, registration and movement (IRM)

Livestock identification and traceability are essential for disease prevention, control, eradication and the protection of public health. In the event of a disease outbreak, it is critical that the locations and movements of livestock can be identified promptly and accurately.

Through the development of the ScotMoves and ScotMoves+ systems, Scottish Ministers have fulfilled a PfG commitment to complete the ScotEID system – operated by the Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society (SAOS) – as a fully integrated, multi-species relational database for Scotland.

ScotMoves and ScotMoves+ systems

Following a European Commission’s Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) audit that found the Cattle Tracing System (CTS) linked holding system in Great Britain to be non-compliant with EU law, the introduction of ScotMoves on 1 January 2017 provided Scottish cattle keepers with a user-friendly online tool to record all cattle movements within their business. Using research evidence from the EPIC Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks, this system – developed through collaboration between industry, ScotEID, and the Scottish Government – offers a central record of all cattle and their locations and enhances traceability.

On 4 October 2021, the transfer of cattle births, deaths, and movement recording to ScotEID was completed with the introduction of ScotMoves+. This extension allows for the recording of all births, movements to holdings outside the business, and deaths, further strengthening traceability systems in Scotland. The phased development of a fully relational multi-species database system for sheep, pigs, and cattle has been instrumental in protecting the livestock sector and supporting both industry and government initiatives aimed at sector improvement.

Bovine EID pilot and digital traceability

Initiated in 2017 by the Scottish cattle industry, the Bovine EID pilot tested radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies and explored the early adoption of electronic identification of cattle. Scottish Ministers committed to supporting the pilot, and trials of RFID tags and readers have since been conducted across farms, markets and abattoirs in Scotland. The completion of the electronic data transfer element (EDT) of the cattle system on ScotEID allows for the introduction of EID and aims to replace paper-based processes with efficient digital systems, improving traceability, reducing administrative burdens on keepers, and enhancing data quality and timeliness throughout the supply chain. These advancements have the potential to significantly increase efficiency and strengthen provenance within the livestock sector.

PRIMO-approved premises

Following reviews of evidence by EPIC Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks and Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) on the use of PRIMO-approved premises (commonly referred to as ‘pig pyramids’), we have been working with DEFRA, APHA and industry stakeholders to identify potential improvements to existing rules and controls. Consideration has been given to the development of a system capable of maintaining up-to-date details of pyramid structures and identifying pyramid chains. This would support the identification of non-compliant movements and enable us and APHA to access pyramid information quickly and efficiently in the event of a disease outbreak. Additionally, we have begun receiving increased reporting from APHA relating to PRIMO approvals and auditing, including compliance checks related to standstill regulations.

Livestock inspections, compliance and enforcement

The Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (SGRPID) carries out the annual regulatory identification, registration and movement (IRM) inspections for cattle, currently covering 3% of cattle keepers. Additional targeted inspections are also undertaken based on referrals from ScotEID and enforcement partners. As of January 2024, SGRPID assumed responsibility for a range of Inspection and Enforcement Services (IES) activities in Scotland, previously carried out by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) on behalf of Scottish Ministers. This transition enables us to have full visibility and management of all IES activities, allowing for more effective oversight and delivery of services relevant to Scottish livestock keepers.

SGRPID also conducts inspections for sheep, goats and pigs to ensure compliance with IRM requirements. Each year, 3% of holdings keeping sheep and/or goats are inspected, with additional targeted inspections carried out on an ad-hoc basis. Pig inspections are selected as a subset of the cross-compliance inspection programme, with approximately 2.5% of businesses declaring pigs, as part of the direct support payment application, selected annually.

It is important that the Scottish livestock industry takes responsibility for, and can demonstrate high standards of traceability. SGRPID staff reinforce this message through positive engagement with individual farmers during inspections. These IRM control measures are critical not only for disease prevention, control, eradication and the protection of public health, but are also required for audit and trade purposes. As the Paying Agency, SGRPID has the authority to apply financial penalties to claimants’ direct support payments and rural development support measures in case of non-compliance identified during inspections. This can also act as an effective deterrent and helps maintain high standards of compliance across the industry.

The SGRPID inspection process also plays a key role in supporting complex multi-agency enforcement cases where serious non-compliance or criminality is identified. SGRPID continues to strengthen joint working with delivery partners to ensure that high risk cases are dealt with effectively, in order to safeguard public and animal health as well as protecting the reputation of Scotland’s livestock sector.

Lessons identified: the ScotEID system operated by SAOS is integrated into several work areas across the Animal Health and Welfare Division responsibilities. Alongside industry, we should consider prioritisation of further ‘added value’ developments, for example recording of vaccination status to benefit producers and government.