Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle people keeping unregistered birds their gardens.

It is a legal requirement for poultry keepers to register their birds with the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on the Great Britain Poultry Register if they have 50 or more birds, even if the birds are only kept as pets. Poultry includes chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, pigeon (bred for meat), partridge, quail, guinea fowl and pheasants.

However we encourage all bird keepers - regardless of the number of birds they keep to register even if they do not have to by law, so that APHA will be able to contact them if there’s a disease outbreak.

Mandatory poultry registration is enforced by Local Authorities. Non-compliance should be reported to the Local Authorities Animal Health Function, which is normally situated with the Trading Standards or Environmental Health Service of a local authority.