Penalty notices are already used in various ways to deal with offences. One of the most recognised ways is for motoring speeding offences, where fines and driver awareness courses can be offered to speeding motorists by police authorities to discharge liability from prosecution (avoiding a criminal record).

At the moment the enforcement choices in England available to deal with breaches of animal health, biosecurity, and welfare regulations are varied, with options including advice and guidance; warning letters/statutory notices; regulatory actions; and prosecution.

One of the main mechanisms for regulatory actions within farming is through cross compliance penalties, but this regime is coming to an end in 2024. Additionally, we have seen the introduction of new animal health and welfare rules across society.

Keep up to date: Watch our Penalty notices webinar: how the future of regulatory action is changing 

Background

In 2021, the government published an Action Plan for Animal Welfare setting out an ambition to provide regulators and enforcers with more flexible and proportionate tools to promote compliance by introducing a new system of penalty notices.

As a result, the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act was adopted in April 2022 giving powers to introduce penalty notices with a maximum penalty of £5,000 (or the maximum fine for which a person convicted of the offence is liable on summary conviction, whichever is lower), for particular animal health and welfare offences.