Animal Sentience Committee responds to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Jun 25
- 3 min read
Badger Trust welcomes the Animal Sentience Committee's response to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, and supports their recommendations to explicitly consider the welfare of sentient animals, in line with the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022.
From an animal welfare perspective, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB) is effectively weighing the lives, and wellbeing, of currently existing wild animals on the one hand, against the existence and welfare of future animals who would live in the new habitats created to offset the impact of developments on the other.
In a statement released yesterday, the Animal Sentience Committee (ASC) raised concerns that the lives and welfare of countless wild animals, as well as companion animals, have been overlooked in the Bill. The committee stressed that potential impacts on animal welfare should be considered alongside benefits of streamlining planning policies for humans.
Due regard to animal welfare
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB) fails to address the welfare of sentient animals, despite the government's responsibility to consider policy impacts on animal wellbeing. The Bill treats ‘biodiversity’ and ‘the environment’ as a single entity, ignoring the fact that they are made up of individual animals capable of experiencing suffering and wellbeing.
The ASC raises concern that the PIB prioritises future biodiversity gains without accounting for the harm done to animals currently living in affected areas.
The ASC raises concern that the Bill, as currently drafted, prioritises future biodiversity gains without accounting for the harm done to animals currently living in affected areas. Under the Environmental Delivery Plans (EDP), existing habitats may be destroyed if future habitats for species of conservation concern are promised elsewhere. This leads to the displacement or death of sentient animals currently living in or around the area of the development.
The ASC argues that greater attention must be given to the immediate welfare impacts on animals already present. The PIB's approach effectively sacrifices the lives and wellbeing of current wild animals for uncertain future ecological benefits, a trade-off that neglects the moral value of individual animal experiences.
The ASC Statement then goes on to provide some of the things the Government could do to make the new legislation more friendly to wildlife and nature.
Suggested approaches to pay due regard to welfare
The ASC advise that the following measures within the Bill would be beneficial to address their concerns:
Predict and consider the impact on animal welfare during construction.
Measures would include avoiding breeding seasons and avoiding developing land near established habitats or feeding grounds. For some species, welfare may be less impacted by translocation than simply allowing animals to die out of sight.
Consider the welfare of wild animals through thoughtful design.
Incorporating designs to reduce roadkill (such as tunnels or bridges), avoid light pollution, reduce bird-strikes, and minimise cat predation and disturbance from dogs. Other approaches include hedgerows and wildlife corridors, ‘swift bricks’, requirements to plant native regional flora, which will help support populations of wild animals within the development as far as possible.
Consider how new housing could promote the welfare of companion animals.
Undertaking ‘pet sufficiency assessments’ to ensure the inclusion of adequate suitable areas for companion animal exercise and gardens that would allow enough space.
Recommendations
The committee concluded by recommending that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill should consider ways in which it might have an adverse effect on the welfare of sentient animals in line with the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. When EDPs are developed, Natural England should consider the impacts of development on the welfare of all sentient animals directly and indirectly affected, regardless of their conservation status.
When EDPs are developed, Natural England should consider the impacts of development on the welfare of all sentient animals directly and indirectly affected, regardless of their conservation status.
Developers should be provided with guidance on how to reduce short- and long-term welfare risks to all wild animals, and how to promote long-term welfare benefits for companion animals.
Badger Trust Chief Executive Nigel Palmer said:
“The Animal Sentience Committee has issued a strong warning to the Government about the potential mistakes it may make by rushing this policy through Parliament without properly considering sentient wild animals, such as badgers.
We continue to work towards amendments that will not undermine the hard-won protection of badgers and urge Ministers to consider the long-term risks of this policy, which, in its current draft, could directly result in the deaths of native species and the destruction of irreplaceable habitats.”
