Agenda item

To consider report HCS/07 of the Head of Community Services.

The Committee considered report HCS/07 of the Head of Community Services, the purpose of which was to consider new arrangements for the licensing of activities involving animals and approve the revised fee levels as proposed.

The Committee was informed that The Animal Welfare Act 2006 was the enabling legislation for recently introduced regulations. The new regulations, called the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations (the regulations), were passed by the Government in April 2018 and came into effect on 1st October 2018.  These regulations repealed and amended the raft of legislative provisions (as set out in Paragraph 4.3 of the report) that currently governed the Council’s licensing activities in relation to animal establishments.

The Committee considered the report in detail, and in response to issues raised, the Environmental Health Manager:

·         Confirmed that for licensing purposes the new Regulations provided a comprehensive list of activities involving animals.

·         Explained that Zoos’ and ‘Dangerous Wild Animal’ establishments would continue to operate under their current licensing regimes.

·         Advised that Dangerous dogs would continue to be covered by the Dangerous Dogs Act.

·         Agreed that before using boarding establishments for their cats or dogs, the public would be advised to seek assurances from those establishments that they were covered by the new legislation.

·         Explained, that as a safeguard and added assurance, a new risk rating system would be implemented resulting in a business receiving a 1-5 star score.  The duration of a business’ licence would be determined by the level of compliance and extent to which they met or exceeded the required standards.

·         Emphasised that a lot of publicity was being undertaken to ensure that all relevant animal establishments, including those involved in the boarding and breeding of dogs, were aware of the new legislation, whilst investigatory work by the Council along with expected peer pressure, would help to pinpoint any establishments that might go unnoticed or did not come forward for this licensing purpose.  

·         Advised that in terms of the licensing of “keeping or training animals for exhibition” - which was to be transferred from County Councils to District Councils, he would provide further clarification to Members as to which groups of animals fitted into this licensing activity.  ACTION.

·         Emphasised that the cost of implementing and operating the new licence regime was required to be covered by income from animal establishment licensing fees.

·         Explained that the new licensing regime would necessitate additional work by the Council and accordingly a new fee regime was proposed to ensure that the Council covered its costs.

·         Indicated that the proposed fees were comparable generally with those of other authorities.

·         Acknowledged that there might be more work than anticipated due to the unknown numbers of persons / organisations needing to be licensed, in which case future fees might need to be adjusted to reflect this possibility.

RESOLVED

1.            Thatthe new arrangementsfor the licensing ofactivities involvinganimals be agreed

2.         That the implementation ofrevised fee levels as set out in Appendix A to the report be approved.