FOI release

Dog-breeding licensing and enforcement (2022–2024)

Case reference FOI2025/00985

Received 7 October 2025

Published 20 October 2025

Request

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 or the equivalent legislation in Wales (the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Wales) Regulations 2021). 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? 10a. If yes, please provide the URL or explain how the public may access it. 10b. 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.

Response

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

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

	New applications received	New applications refused
2021/22	2	0
2022/23	1	0
2023/24	0	0

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

	Total Income received
2021/22	£3,584
2022/23	£1,924
2023/24	£2,150

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

This information is not held specifically for dog breeding licences.

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

	FTE officers
2021/22	1
2022/23
2023/24

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

	Number of inspections
2021/22	8
2022/23	6
2023/24	4

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

	Number of inspections
2021/22	1
2022/23	3
2023/24	2

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

	Revoked	Suspended	Not renewed
2021/22	0	0	0
2022/23	0	0	1
2023/24	0	0	1

(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

	Breach of licence condition	Unlicensed breeding
2021/22	0	14
2022/23	2	13
2023/24	3	8

b. Formal warnings / improvement notices issued

	Breach of licence condition	Unlicensed breeding
2021/22	0	0
2022/23	0	0
2023/24	1 (formal warning)	0

c. Fixed-penalty notices issued

0 for all three financial years

d. Cautions administered

0 for all three financial years

e. Prosecutions commenced

2021/2022 – 0

2022/2023 - 2

2023/2024 – 0

f. Prosecutions resulting in conviction

0 for all three financial years

(10) Does the council maintain a public register of licensed dog breeders? 10a. If yes, please provide the URL or explain how the public may access it.

https://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/licensing/animal-licensing/animal-licensing-register

10b. If no, please confirm whether an internal register exists. N/A

Documents

There are no documents for this release.

This is Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.