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

What is ARC?

The Animal Rights & Care Coalition (ARC) is a focused, cross‑sector collaboration jointly hosted by the Schweitzer Institute and CASJ. Its purpose is to develop principled yet practically workable proposals for strengthening the protection of animals in law and public policy, with a particular emphasis on governance and enforcement. ARC members collaborate on research, consultation and advocacy around institutional reforms, including the APC proposal and related measures to improve transparency, accountability and public participation in animal protection.

Why an Animal Protection Commission?

Recent parliamentary inquiries and specialist reports have shown that the UK’s animal welfare laws are repeatedly 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.

How ARC and the APC fit together

ARC acts as the independent civil‑society engine behind the APC concept. The coalition refines the philosophical, legal and institutional design of the Commission, gathers evidence on enforcement problems and solutions, and offers a forum in which NGOs, professional bodies and academics can shape the APC model before and during the legislative process. In turn, the proposed APC would sit within government as a statutory body, responsible for overseeing enforcement frameworks, setting and reviewing standards, improving data and intelligence‑sharing, and securing greater accountability across the animal protection system.

Building on existing work

ARC’s agenda 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, ARC aims to ensure that well‑intentioned laws translate into consistent, preventative protection for animals in practice, and that animals are treated as sentient beings rather than as mere economic units.

ARC parliamentary seminar

The first ARC‑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.