November 2026 marks the twentieth anniversary of the Royal Assent of the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Co-hosted by the Centre for Animals & Social Justice and the Schweitzer Institute, this conference will examine the Act’s legacy and ask what it has — and has not — achieved for animals in the United Kingdom.
The Animal Welfare Act 2006 represented an important ethical development. Alongside prohibitions on cruelty, it introduced a positive duty on those responsible for animals to meet their welfare needs. Yet two decades on, the Act’s promise has been unevenly realised. Serious and preventable harms persist across many settings: from the intensive farming of hundreds of millions of pathologically fast-growing chickens each year to the selective breeding of dogs predisposed to inherited disorders, including brachycephaly.
These problems are not simply isolated failures. They reveal wider omissions in the Act and in the systems responsible for implementing it, including:
Such structural weaknesses are also a major obstacle to achieving specific and long-term animal-protection objectives. They affect campaigns ranging from ending routine mutilations of lambs and piglets, such as tail docking, to reforming the restrictive disclosure provisions in section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
The conference will place the 2006 Act in a wider animal-governance context, including the regulation of animal experimentation, policies affecting wild animals, and the distinct legal and institutional arrangements in the devolved nations. It will also consider whether the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 is fulfilling its intended role. That Act established the Animal Sentience Committee, which may examine whether the UK Government has given all due regard to the ways in which policy may adversely affect the welfare of animals as sentient beings.
Finally, the conference will explore practical institutional reforms aimed at reducing the continuing toll of animal harm in the UK. A central focus will be the proposal for a governmental Animal Protection Commission: an independent body intended to improve enforcement, coordination, evidence use, accountability and the fair representation of animals’ vital welfare interests — and of related public concern — throughout the policy process.
To help illuminate the value and challenges of this approach, the programme will also include a presentation on Australia’s pioneering Fair Go for Animals campaign for a National Animal Welfare Commission. The campaign proposes an independent body to improve national consistency and accountability, and its recent business-case analysis estimates that such a commission could generate annual savings by reducing duplication and streamlining regulatory processes.
Vegan lunch and refreshments will be provided. Remote attendance via Zoom, or a similar platform, will be available for those unable to attend in person.
Conference venue: The Marlowe Room, Clayton Hotel, 27-29 Station Rd, Cambridge CB1 2FB
T: +44 (0) 1223 792888
Registration is free. To register, please contact director@schweitzer.institute.