Animal Activities Licensing Fees

Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018

Fees and charges for the period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027

Animal Activity Licence fees are broken down into two parts:

1. An application fee payable at the time of application.  This fee covers the costs associated with determining the application to the point that it is ready to issue; and
2. A grant fee to cover the remaining costs which is payable at the point the application has been determined.

Please note that a licence will not be issued until such time as all the necessary fees have been paid i.e. the application fee, the grant fee, and any veterinary fees (where applicable).

Five animal activities have been identified as licensable as follows:

• Selling animals as pets
• Hiring out horses
• Keeping or training animals for exhibition
• Breeding dogs
• Providing or arranging for the provision of boarding for cats or dogs

You will note from the table below that he activity of ‘providing or arranging for the provision of boarding for cats or dogs is made up of 4 sub-categories.

A single Animal Activity Licence will be issued to cover all of the five animal activities carried out at a specified premise.  Where you intend to apply for more than one activity, the application fee is worked out be calculating the higher of the charges for each animal activity applied for, then, adding the additional activity charge for each additional activity thereafter. The grant fee payable will be the higher of the charges for each animal activity applied for.