‘The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 is a short piece of legislation of only six sections. The main purpose of the Act is the creation of a new Animal Sentience Committee (s.1; hereafter “ASC”). Comprised of independent, non-partisan experts from a range of relevant fields, their role is to scrutinise the extent to which the formulation or implementation of government policy has paid “due regard to the ways in which the policy might have an adverse effect on the welfare of animals as sentient beings” (s.2(2)). Although the actual impact of the Act is as yet uncertain – to be expected given that, at the time of writing, the membership of the ASC has yet to be formally announced by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – I hope that this post will show why the future operation of the ASC is not only of interest to Animal Lawyers, but to Public Lawyers more broadly.’

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Constitutional Law Association, 7th September 2022

Source: ukconstitutionallaw.org