GovWire

We received 3,419 responses (3,387 through Citizen Space and 32 by email).

Following careful consideration of responses and taking into account government objectives to tackle outbreaks of notifiable avian diseases (such as bird flu) in kept birds, the UK government, the Scottish Government and Welsh Government have agreed to proceed with proposed changes to:

• extend registration to all kept birds, not just poultry, and reduce the threshold from 50 to 1
• exempt psittacines and passerines (budgies, parrots, canaries and similar species) kept within a dwelling or in a dedicated bird house without any access to the outside, from the mandatory registration requirement
• mandate all keepers to review their records annually

The proposed changes will be implemented in 2 phases. The mandatory registration requirements would apply from late summer or early autumn 2024 and the mandatory annual updates 12 months afterwards.