Animal Protection Commission

The Schweitzer Institute and the Centre for Animals & Social Justice (CASJ) are working together to help design and deliver a more coherent system of animal protection governance for the United Kingdom. This initiative brings together legal scholars, policymakers, NGOs and practitioners to support the creation of a Governmental Animal Protection Commission (APC) capable of addressing the enforcement failures repeatedly identified by Parliament and expert bodies.

Why an Animal Protection Commission?

Recent parliamentary inquiries and specialist reports have shown that the UK’s animal welfare laws are often undermined by patchy, under‑resourced and inconsistent enforcement across local authorities and sectors. They point to gaps in inspector training, fragmented responsibilities between agencies, weak data‑sharing, and a lack of clear accountability for delivering the standards set out in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, the Animal Sentience Act and related legislation. A national APC is intended to provide the independent oversight, coordination and expertise needed to close these systemic gaps and to secure a robust duty of “due regard” for animal welfare across government.

Building on existing work

This initiative builds directly on concerns already raised by parliamentary groups and expert committees about enforcement failures, low inspection rates, uneven use of existing powers and the need for stronger partnerships between government, local authorities and the charity sector. By drawing these strands together in a single governance project, the Schweitzer Institute and CASJ aim to ensure that well‑intentioned laws translate into consistent, preventative protection for animals in practice, and that welfare standards are treated as a core element of public policy rather than an afterthought.

Parliamentary seminar

The first APC‑linked parliamentary seminar, titled “Draft proposal for a Government Animal Protection Commission – Exploring a framework to secure due regard for animal welfare”, will take place at 1 Parliament Street, Westminster, on Tuesday 21 April 2026, hosted by Adrian Ramsay MP in partnership with the Schweitzer Institute and CASJ. This inaugural hybrid session will present a late draft of the APC position paper, together with a brief note on the aims and structure of the proposed Commission, and will be explicitly consultative in format. Bringing together parliamentarians, NGOs, professional bodies and academic experts, the seminar will invite participants to offer feedback on the draft proposals, share perspectives from their organisations, and identify key opportunities and risks for embedding “due regard” for animal welfare within UK governance structures, ahead of future legislative drafting on an APC model.