Animal Welfare Impact Assessment: Integrating Welfare into Policy Planning

Formal animal welfare impact assessment of government policies would ensure that welfare consequences are systematically considered before decisions are made that affect animals.

Key Facts

The UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 requires the government to consider animal welfare in all policy decisions and created an Animal Sentience Committee for this purpose
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) processes typically do not include systematic welfare assessment of impacts on wildlife populations
Agricultural policy reform processes including Brexit farm payment transitions have included welfare considerations but rarely as primary rather than secondary factors
Cost-benefit analysis of policies affecting farmed animals rarely includes welfare costs to the animals themselves, only economic costs to producers and consumers
The Netherlands has developed welfare impact assessment frameworks for agricultural policy that could serve as a model for other governments

Welfare Considerations

Welfare impact assessment fills a critical gap in policy processes: the systematic consideration of what happens to animals as a result of government decisions. Without formal assessment, welfare impacts are easily overlooked, especially where they are diffuse, affect large numbers of animals without individual visibility, or fall on species without political constituencies. The creation of the UK Animal Sentience Committee represents progress, but formal welfare impact assessment processes are needed to operationalise this commitment across all policy domains.

What You Can Do

Support the work of Animal Sentience Committees and equivalent bodies in your country
Advocate for animal welfare impact assessment to be a mandatory element of agricultural and environmental policy review
Engage with policy consultation processes to raise welfare considerations in policy areas that affect animals
Push for welfare costs to animals to be included in cost-benefit analysis of policy options
Support organisations that conduct independent welfare impact analysis of government policies to inform advocacy