Scottish Animal Welfare Commission: welfare of animals as sentient beings - activity review 2025

3. Scottish Government Legislation and Implementation Measures

Natural Environment Bill

The Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill (a 2021-2022 Programme commitment) provides for statutory targets for nature restoration on land and sea, and a framework for setting, monitoring, enforcing and reporting on those targets. It includes a number of actions that have animal welfare implications and are therefore relevant to the SAWC remit, including a continued drive to reduce deer population densities, ongoing control and removal of invasive non-native species (INNS) and ensuring that grouse moor management sustains healthy biodiversity.

The Bill was introduced on 19 February 2025 and Stage 1 was scheduled for completion by 31 October 2025.

Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act 2024

The Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Act was passed on 21 March 2024 and became an Act on 30 April 2024. Grouse moors in Scotland now require a licence to operate and licence holders must comply with a Code of Practice for Grouse Moor Management published by NatureScot.

The Code sets out the legal requirements associated with managing land for killing and/or taking red grouse, as well as good practice requirements which licence holders should observe. As noted in our last review, the Code references Moorland Management Best Practice guides, recommending that this guidance should be followed under a number of heading including wildlife management. The wildlife management paragraph recommends that practitioners ensure that they take wildlife welfare into account in management decisions.

SAWC welcomes the reference to wildlife welfare but remains concerned that there is still no Moorland Management Best Practice Guide available to provide practical guidance on wildlife welfare in management decisions.

SAWC welcomed the coming into force of a full ban on the use of snares in Scotland in November 2024. The Act also bans the use of glue traps in Scotland, but these provisions have not yet been implemented, initially due to the refusal by the previous UK government to allow Scotland to derogate from the Internal Market Act 2020 with regard to a ban on the supply of glue traps. SAWC understands that this issue is reaching a resolution. More recently, work has begun on regulations under section 5 of the Act to provide a scheme for the use, supply or possession of glue traps by specified trained and authorised persons, albeit only when there is a public health issue and no other method of rodent control is practicable.

Section 7 of the Act requires that anyone using a spring trap or wild bird trap for lawful purposes must have a wildlife trap licence. In October 2024, four accredited land management organisations began providing training courses in preparation for the proposed licensing scheme. The Scottish Parliament has yet to confirm the commencement date for the licensing provisions which are now not expected until late 2026.

National Good Food Nation Plan

The Good Food Nation (Scotland) Act 2022 requires the Scottish Government and other public authorities to set out Good Food Nation Plans aimed at achieving outcomes in relation to a number of matters of public interest, including animal welfare and the natural environment.

The Scottish Government’s proposed national Plan was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 27 June 2025. It sets out six overarching Good Food Nation Outcomes, the range of targets and indicators used to gauge progress towards achieving them, and details of food-related policies and initiatives from across the Scottish Government. Outcome 2 includes mention of animal welfare:

“Scotland’s food system is sustainable and contributes to a flourishing natural environment on our land and in our waters. It supports our net zero and climate adaptation ambitions and plays an important role in maintaining and improving animal health and welfare and in restoring and regenerating biodiversity”

A set of sub-outcomes is identified within the Plan, including:

• Sub-outcome 2C: Animal health and welfare standards are maintained, enforced and improved in line with Scottish Government policy.

SAWC is pleased to note that this sub-outcome states: “Improving and maintaining animal health and welfare is an essential part of sustainable food production.”

In its response to the draft Plan consultation, SAWC recommended recognition of this fact. Indicators of animal welfare for farmed animals already included in the Plan for this sub-outcome cover: the proportion of Scottish consumers concerned with animal welfare; the proportion of laying hens in Scotland that are either reared as free-range or organic; the numbers of livestock animals inspected by local authorities every year in Scotland; and herd prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in Scotland. Baselines for these indicators will be set when 2025 data become available, with direction of travel being monitored thereafter. SAWC has recently been asked by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, Mairi Gougeon MSP, to explore the feasibility of developing further indicators to inform this sub-outcome.

• Sub-outcome 2D: Scotland's fishing and aquaculture activities provide healthy, quality and sustainably harvested and farmed seafood.

The indicators in this sub-outcome relate to the sustainability of commercial fishing and salmon production. The Plan notes improved sustainability of fish stocks in Scottish waters, as a “positive trend […] reflective of improved fisheries management and more responsible fishing practices.” Atlantic Salmon production volumes are considered an indicator that aquaculture activities provide “healthy, quality and sustainably harvested and farmed seafood”.

SAWC is pleased to note the fishing and aquaculture are including in the plan. However, production volumes are not a good indication of animal welfare, as animals may grow and produce well even when they are experiencing poor welfare. We encourage the development and use of welfare indicators to assess welfare standards fully.