FOI request (FOIR-755413948)

Dog-breeding licensing and enforcement (2022–2024)

Requested Wed 08 October 2025
Responded Tue 14 October 2025

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information regarding your council’s regulation of dog-breeding establishments under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018.

Please supply figures for each of the past three calendar years (2022, 2023, and 2024). If your records are held by financial year rather than calendar year, please provide data for 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24 instead.

If any part of this request would exceed the Section 12 cost limit (£450 for local authorities, calculated at £25 per hour), please process as much of it as possible within that limit, and advise which parts could be refined to remain compliant.

Please provide the following:

1. Number of dog-breeding licences currently issued by your authority.

2. Number of new licence applications received and number refused each year.

3. Total income received from dog-breeding licence fees each year.

4. Total expenditure on administering and enforcing these licences each year (including officer time, inspections and related costs).

5. Number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) officers responsible for animal-licensing inspection and enforcement in each year.

6. Number of inspections carried out at licensed breeding premises each year.

7. Number of inspections carried out at unlicensed or suspected breeding premises each year.

8. Number of dog-breeding licences revoked, suspended, or not renewed each year.

9. If held, the number of formal investigations or enforcement actions relating to breaches of dog-breeding licence conditions or unlicensed breeding, broken down (where recorded) by:

a. Investigations initiated.

b. Formal warnings/improvement notices issued.

c. Fixed-penalty notices issued.

d. Cautions administered.

e. Prosecutions commenced.

f. Prosecutions resulting in conviction.

10. Does the council maintain a public register of licensed dog breeders?

a. If yes, please provide the URL or explain how the public may access it.

b. If no, please confirm whether an internal register exists.

Please provide the data in spreadsheet format (Excel or CSV), where possible. Where exact figures are not held, please provide your best available estimate or state 'information not held'. If data are stored across systems, you may provide annual totals rather than extract individual records.

This request forms part of a UK-wide transparency project analysing how local authorities enforce dog-breeding regulations. Results will be published to highlight good practice and support councils in securing resources for animal-welfare enforcement.

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Response

Please see the attached document that contains the requested information.

Attachments

• FOIR-755413948_FOIR-755413948_1-Breeders.xlsx