Welfare of Animals Bill - Responses to Consultation
A public consultation on proposed new animal welfare legislation in Northern Ireland started on Tuesday 22 August 2006 and the last date for receipt of input to the consultation was Friday 5 December 2006. In the 2006 consultation 92 responses were received from organisations and individuals which included 12 anonymous responses during the 15 week formal consultation period.
As this consultation was carried out during Direct Rule, the Minister wanted to take the time to engage directly with key stakeholders to hear at first hand their concerns. Since taking up office in 2007, the Minister and her officials have engaged extensively with a wide range of welfare interests, from here, the South and Britain. The Minister also wanted to draw on lessons learnt in England and Wales and Scotland since the introduction of their new legislation in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
In order to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to update or add to their original comments a consultation workshop was held on 17 September 2009 with responses being due by 25 September 2009, this closed the formal the consultation stage of the process. In the 2009 consultation workshop 31 responses were received.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development would like to thank the individuals and organisations who provided responses to either the 2006 consultation or the workshop in 2009.
The following documents indicate the responses which were received for the 2006 consultation and the 2009 workshop. For ease of reference an index page has been included in both documents. To facilitate consideration of the responses a document summarising the responses to the 2006 consultation has been provided. The current policy proposals are published along with the minutes taken at the consultation workshop.
Please click on the appropriate link to access the document.
