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

6. Scottish Government Policies and Strategies

Dangerous Dogs

The Dangerous Dogs (Designated Types) (Scotland) Order 2024 prohibited the keeping of the XL Bully type dog in Scotland as of February 2024, unless the dog was listed on an Index of Exempted Dogs which closed on 31 July 2024. Since that time, concerns have persisted on issues including the correct identification of XL Bully type dogs and the welfare of seized dogs being kept in kennels over very lengthy periods.

SAWC has written to the Minister for Victims and Community Safety and the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity on these matters and was pleased to note the creation of an expert advisory group with a remit that includes enforcement and resources; dog welfare; prevention, education and communication; and the gathering of data to inform and support dog control policy. SAWC members will contribute to the relevant working groups.

Aquaculture

The 2023-24 Programme for Government committed to “pilot a new aquaculture consenting process in two local authority areas to help deliver a more streamlined regime across Scotland”. The 2025-2026 Programme developed this into a wider commitment to “[s]treamlining the consenting process for aquaculture, to improve efficiency and clarify the consenting process for aquaculture development between 3 – 12 nautical miles.” In July 2025, the Scottish Government published the results of an independent review of the fish farm consenting pre-application pilots with a series of recommendations intended to build “a more transparent, efficient, and collaborative process — one that supports timely decision-making while maintaining the quality, clarity, and integrity of engagement with all parties involved.”

While the consenting process is not directly connected with animal welfare, these developments are relevant in view of the continued interest in improving fish welfare across the aquaculture industry.

Separately, following the conclusion of the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee’s follow-up enquiry into Salmon Farming in Scotland on 17 January 2025, the Scottish Government published its response on 13 March 2025. A range of commitments were made, including exploring both statutory and alternative options for supporting welfare standards for farmed fish during production. Aligned with delivery of the Vision for Sustainable Aquaculture, the Scottish Government undertook to explore how to gain greater insights into cleaner fish health and welfare outcomes. Ministers also agreed to undertake an analysis of fish farm sites that maintain high mortality year to year, exploring thresholds for “persistent high mortality”, and what actions were already taken by producers to prevent issues causing mortality persisting from year to year.

The Committee report included a recommendation for additional regulations and official guidance under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 to set specific baseline standards for the welfare of farmed fish. The Scottish Government responded that existing provisions, and the industry’s Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Aquaculture and various accreditation schemes, already provided safeguards for the health and welfare of farmed fish, while specific guidance on welfare of salmon at the time of killing was already being explored. After consultation with salmon industry interests and NGOs, this guidance was issued on 17 July 2025. (Officials have also been collaborating with DEFRA on draft guidance for the welfare at killing of trout.)

There was no specific response to a Committee recommendation that “official guidance must take account of industry's need to balance treating their fish in order to meet regulatory standards for sea lice with the potential unintended consequences this may have for fish health and welfare”. Ministers considered there could be a number of ways to progress standards for farmed fish welfare and undertook to carry out an analysis of options, including statutory options and alternatives, to explore what benefits each would offer and determine how welfare standards could be best set out.

SAWC welcomes these commitments and in particular the new guidance on the welfare of salmon at the time of killing, which was discussed in SAWC’s report Ascribing sentience to fish: potential policy implications. SAWC has also recently published a report on the welfare of cleaner fish in salmon production.

Implementation of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Act 2022

Part 4 of the Fireworks and Pyrotechnics (Scotland) Act 2022 allows local authorities in Scotland to designate firework control zones (FCZ) where the use of fireworks is restricted, including the use of fireworks on private land. These discretionary powers are being used particularly in Edinburgh and Glasgow, apparently with public support, while other authorities appear to have fewer problems with firework misuse and focus instead on informing the public of their right to request the designation of an FCZ.

Part 2 of the Act makes provision for a fireworks licensing system as a means of regulating the purchase, acquisition, possession, use and supply of certain fireworks. Under these measures, only persons aged 18 years or over who have a fireworks licence would be permitted to buy (or otherwise acquire), possess or use those fireworks, unless an exemption applies, or the person otherwise has a reasonable excuse. Applicants for a licence would have to complete a training course not more than three months before making the application.

However, implementation of the licensing requirement, and of provisions restricting the days on which fireworks can be supplied and used, has been extended to 2026. After consultation with the Animal Welfare Committee, SAWC has written to the Minister for Victims and Community Safety to recommend prompt implementation of these provisions.

Regulating the supply of fireworks, including online sales, is a reserved matter. SAWC has therefore recommended that the Scottish Government support a Private Member’s Fireworks Bill lodged by Sarah Owen MP in the UK Parliament. The Bill seeks to confine the sale of “high noise” category F2 fireworks, category F3 fireworks and category F4 fireworks to professional organisers or operators of firework displays, and to businesses involved in the supply or transport of fireworks. Effectively, this would prohibit the sale of these categories of fireworks to the public, meaning that only lower noise fireworks would be generally available.

PE2021 Ensure Animal Health and Welfare Scotland Act 2006 applies to the sheep on St Kilda

This petition was closed on 19 March 2025 by the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament after the Scottish Government confirmed it does not intend to change its long-established view that the St Kilda sheep should be treated as an unowned and unmanaged wild population for the purposes of animal health and welfare legislation, while the moral or ethical position should be considered further by the landowner, National Trust for Scotland. The Scottish Government had also advised that it considers the sheep on St Kilda to be protected by the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996, which covers any mammal which is not a protected animal within the meaning of section 17 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006. SAWC notes, however, that the 1996 Act prohibits specific acts of cruelty carried out with the intent of inflicting unnecessary suffering, rather than promoting the duty of care, and therefore may not provide the same level of protection for animal welfare. Issues of ownership may also remain to be resolved.