Livestock health and welfare strategy 2025 to 2030

Commitments and actions

The strategy will be implemented through six overarching commitments:

1. Legislation, regulation, enforcement and contingency planning

2. Policy co-design, communication and knowledge exchange

3. Supporting change and development

4. Evidence-based policy and research

5. Animal welfare commitments and powers to provide support

6. Veterinary profession, surveillance, disease detection and prevention

Each commitment is composed of a set of targeted actions, which are presented in the following sections.

Legislation, regulation, enforcement and contingency planning

These actions are aimed at strengthening the legal and regulatory framework to ensure effective enforcement and contingency planning are in place:

1. We will implement the UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Veterinary Agreement in order to facilitate trade by aligning with EU laws when appropriate. The UK-EU SPS Veterinary Agreement has the potential to remove trade barriers, reduce the costs of trading with the EU, improve supply chain resilience and reduce delays at the border. We will use our powers to implement safeguards and protective measures where necessary, to ensure that Scotland’s high biosecurity and animal welfare continue to be protected.

2. We will continue to work with our delivery partners to improve arrangements for the efficient delivery of responsive, transparent and effective regulation and enforcement. This includes work with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and local authorities. Working together with our delivery partners is key to ensuring that a robust and joined up system is in place.

3. We will ensure that the sufficient and flexible legislative powers are available to Scottish Ministers for the implementation of robust measures for the prevention and control of exotic and notifiable disease outbreaks. These powers should provide enough flexibility and scope to adapt to new challenges presented by rapidly developing disease scenarios and rapidly evolving scientific and technological developments. Where appropriate, preparation should be made for the use of Legislative Consent Motions (LCMs). A keen eye should be kept on legislative changes in the EU, on requirements of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) and our other international trading partners.

4. We will place high priority on contingency planning for exotic, notifiable and zoonotic disease outbreaks and other emergencies that impact on animal health, public health and animal welfare. This will include formal disease control exercises, working with Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) colleagues, our operational and delivery partners and public health colleagues, where appropriate.

Policy co-design, communication and knowledge exchange

These actions are aimed at enhancing communications, collaboration and sharing of best practices for policy development and delivery:

5. We will work in partnership with delivery partners and other UK administrations through appropriate formal and informal groups and channels to develop and deliver polices (that have a common cause and solve problems) to provide the best possible outcome for animal health and welfare. In doing so, we will aim to ensure that policies are coordinated, well considered, proportionate, provide wider benefit (i.e. public value), are evidence-based, deliver value for money and are in line with Scottish Ministers’ strategic objectives. In terms of UK coordination, the most significant of these groups are the UK Animal Disease Policy Group and the Animal Welfare Committee.

6. We will continue to maintain a strong network for information sharing and knowledge exchange with livestock sector organisations and contacts. This network is built on trust and has proved invaluable over many years for different purposes. It enables support as well as challenge and is highly valued by policy makers. The central coordinating group, the Scottish Government Animal Health and Welfare Stakeholder Group, will continue to meet regularly around three times per year.

7. We will ensure the best possible advice on animal health and welfare is accessible to farmers and veterinarians, through the combined Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) and that, where possible, it is tailored to circumstances. This will include the roles undertaken by the Farm and Veterinary Advisory Services, provision of resources for use in animal health and welfare campaigns and AKIS activities, such as monitor farms, support for the translation of new knowledge and tools from research and development into practice.

Supporting change and development

These actions are aimed at enabling innovation and continuous improvement through targeted support and building capacity:

8. Our animal health and welfare policies will support the aims of the Vision for Agriculture and the objectives of the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024. Good animal health and welfare is a central component of sustainable and regenerative livestock farming. It is also essential to drive economic and environmental efficiency gains in order to reduce the environmental impact of livestock and to improve business performance. Powers in the Act will be used to provide support in many ways to achieve these outcomes.

9. We will endeavour to facilitate the development and adoption of new technologies, methods, practices and data use in the livestock and veterinary sectors. These include those that facilitate improvements in disease prevention and control, animal welfare, business and environmental efficiency on farms. This may comprise further development of the Scottish multi-species livestock database system, the sharing of data, techniques for collecting, analysing and presenting data, and means of communicating knowledge, particularly with regard to communication of new risks and threats, urgent news and advice.

10. We will build upon existing non-notifiable endemic disease control initiatives and pilots (on BVD, PRRS, OPA and sheep scab, as well as the Programme for Sustainable Farming options). Over recent years the livestock sectors in Scotland have indicated their appetite for progress in health and welfare by requesting support for these schemes. These pilots and health check initiatives may be taken forward as farm specific, local or national schemes supported using powers available under the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024, or as standalone projects. They can form an important contribution to the Vision for Agriculture and sustainable and regenerative farming. Through driving a “prevention rather than cure” approach on farm, they will reduce the use of antimicrobials, thus contributing to a One Health approach.

Evidence-based policy and research

These actions are aimed at basing decisions on high-quality data, research and analyses to drive effective outcomes:

11. We will work with government analysts, researchers, scientists and others to ensure we have the best possible evidence when implementing measures to control exotic, notifiable and new and emerging diseases. In particular, we will take evidence and advice from the Scottish Government Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA)-funded EPIC Centre of Expertise for Animal Disease Outbreaks, the APHA National Biosecurity Centre, and the Pirbright Institute.

12. We will continue to support Scotland’s national capacity in animal health and welfare science, through the funding of research addressing priority evidence needs. Details of the priority areas of research interest identified for future funding are presented in the draft version of the 2027 to 2032 Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) research strategy, which was published for public consultation in August 2025.

13. We will aim to ensure a continued pathway from strategic through applied to developmental and operational research in animal health and welfare. Research to enhance the readiness of innovations will be supported within the 2027 to 2032 ENRA research strategy to help deliver and expand innovation pathways, reduce barriers to uptake of innovations and support their adoption and commercialisation. This approach benefits both researchers and end-users, across both policy and industry, by ensuring that research outputs are practically applicable. This is particularly relevant for advancing the prevention and control of efficiency-limiting endemic diseases and welfare conditions.

Animal welfare commitments and powers to provide support

These actions are aimed at upholding animal welfare standards and ensuring mechanisms are in place to provide the appropriate support:

14. Animal health and welfare policies will support the broad aims contained within the Good Food Nation Act 2022 (GFN) and the national GFN plan outcomes that aim to improve the welfare of animals and food security. These commitments are reinforced and supported by the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 and the Vision for Agriculture. The social licence to farm livestock for food production and public expectations for more than simply cheap food are in the spotlight more than ever reflecting changed attitudes to livestock management, which have in turn led to greater welfare content in industry assurance schemes. Scottish Ministers will listen to views of welfare organisations, take evidence and advice from the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) and the UK Animal Welfare Commission (AWC) and continue to explore, develop and deliver ways to protect and improve the welfare of livestock throughout their lives.

15. We are committed to delivering the agricultural policy objectives set out in the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024. This includes the promotion of agricultural practices that protect and improve animal health and welfare. The Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024 sets out a range of powers that may be used to achieve this objective, including through assistance to promote, protect or improve animal health and welfare, as well as assistance for knowledge, innovation, education and training. These powers can be used as part of the Agriculture Reform Programme four-tiers approach – as set out in the Rural Support Plan and the Code of Practice on Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture – or independent of that, through standalone projects.

Veterinary profession, surveillance, disease detection and prevention

These actions are aimed at supporting veterinary capacity and systems for early detection, surveillance and prevention of diseases:

16. We will adopt a One Health-One Welfare approach to our animal health and welfare policies, given the links between animal health and welfare, human health and wellbeing and the environment. These concepts have gathered acceptance in the medical, veterinary and scientific communities and from international organisations, including the World Health Organisation, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

17. We will continue to support the veterinary surveillance services provided by SRUC and the Moredun Research Institute. Changes in recent years have improved the efficiency of the service and diagnostic return rate, particularly for cattle abortions. Data from this service is shared and collated with GB data on the Veterinary Investigation Diagnosis Analysis (VIDA) system operated by APHA. Another key group is the Veterinary Risk Group (VRG), which facilitates the identification, reporting and assessment of emerging threats to UK’s animal health.

18. We will continue participation in a network of contacts and groups across GB with interests in wildlife diseases. These groups are important in providing access to expertise in the detection of new and emerging infections. They are well connected, proactively share information and are responsive to government requests.

19. We will continue to support the continuous professional development (CPD) training services at SRUC which assist, amongst other things, veterinary involvement in animal health and welfare planning. The requirement for a Whole Farm Plan (WFP) in order to receive support payments has commenced in 2025. The WFP includes animal health and welfare planning as one of five available options, of which three must be taken.

20. We will continue to support delivery of animal health and welfare services in remote and rural areas of Scotland through the Highlands and Islands Veterinary Services Scheme (HIVSS). The aim of the HIVSS is to ensure the provision of an equitable veterinary service to prevent and eradicate animal diseases and protect animal welfare, for all animals kept by crofters and others of similar economic status for agricultural purposes, in in some remote areas of the Scottish highlands and islands.

21. We will continue to support the veterinary profession in Scotland as it seeks to tackle the ongoing challenges faced, by chairing the Veterinary Delivery Landscape Partnership (VDLP) group. The VDLP brings together veterinary profession leaders and practitioners in Scotland to share information and explore challenges and solutions related to the sustainable delivery of veterinary services across Scotland, particularly in remote and rural areas.