Chichester District Council
Issue

Issue - meetings

Adoption of Fees for Animal Licensing

Meeting: 06/11/2018 - Cabinet (Item 601)

601 Proposed Fees and Charges for the New Animal Welfare Licensing Regime pdf icon PDF 69 KB

The Cabinet is requested to consider the agenda report and its appendix and to make an appropriate resolution in the light of the following recommendation:

 

That the Cabinet considers and makes any recommendations on the new fees and charges in relation to the administration and enforcement of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 for consideration by the General Licensing Committee when coming to its decision.

Additional documents:

Decision:

RECOMMENDATION TO THE GENERAL LICENSING COMMITTEE

 

That the new fees and charges in relation to the administration and enforcement of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 be agreed as set out in the appendix (as amended) to the agenda report.

 

[Note The amendment to the appendix related to the penultimate field (Rescore visit) in the table, where the figure of £140 should be moved from the Existing Licence Fee column to the Proposed Licence Fee column]

 

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet received and considered the agenda report and its appendix.

 

The fourth agenda supplement substituted the correct hypertext link to the first background paper in para 12.1 of the report.

 

This item was presented by Mr J Connor (Cabinet Member for Environment Services).

 

Mr T Horne (Principal Environmental Health Officer) and Mrs A Stevens (Divisional Manager Environmental Protection) were in attendance for this matter.

 

Mr Connor summarised the report as follows. Citing examples, he said that public interest in animal welfare remained high. The new regulations which came into force in October 2018 repealed legislation which in part dated back to the 1940s. They introduced animal welfare standards and controls which would govern management, operation and training of those working in this sector and were fit for purpose in the twenty-first century. A number of animal-related activities were now covered under an animal activity licence, with associated new national licence conditions and guidance for operators and inspectors and the introduction of a risk-based inspection programme. The proposed fees and charges had been at long last been overhauled and were based on DEFRA guidance and in keeping with a county-wide fee-setting structure which had been devised. The details of the new fee structure were set out in the appendix to the report. It should be noted that whilst the new fees appeared to be higher than those for existing licences, most of the new licences would ordinarily (subject to compliance) continue for two to three years instead of the hitherto annual renewal. Drawing an analogy with regulation of the food industry, it was anticipated that this new regulatory system would create incentives for operators to attain the very highest standards in animal welfare.

 

Mrs Stevens informed the Cabinet of an amendment to the table of fees and charges in the appendix to the report: in the penultimate row the sum of £140 should not be listed in the existing licence fee column but instead in the proposed licence fee column.

 

Mr Horne and Mrs Stevens did not add to Mr Connor’s introduction but they responded to questions and comments by the Cabinet on points of details with respect to (a) the increase in fees and charges; (b) enforcement of the new regulatory regime; and (c) in the case of, say, dog care services, the regulations and penalties for infringements would apply to businesses but not to the casual and occasional looking after a friend’s or relative’s dog.  

 

With Mr Dignum’s permission, Mrs C Apel (Chichester West), who was present as an observer, asked if the new regulations would apply to wildlife sanctuaries. Mrs Stevens undertook to provide a written response to all CDC members.

 

[Note All CDC members were e-mailed by Democratic Services on behalf of Mrs Stevens later on the day of this meeting advising that the regulations did not extend to wildlife sanctuaries]

 

Decision

 

The Cabinet voted unanimously to make the recommendation set out below, which included the foregoing amendment to the table of fees and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 601


 

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