Guidance

Cattle movement general licence

Cattle owners and keepers must follow the conditions of this licence when they move their animals.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 13 July 2009
• Last updated: 1 April 2022
  Show all updates

  1. 1 April 2022

     General licence PDF has been replaced by an accessible version to view online.

  2. 4 October 2021

     This guidance has been updated to show it applies to England only.

  3. 1 July 2016

     Made it clear that a general licence can only be used for movements directly between common land, and premises that have the right to use that common land. Made it clear that standstill rules apply to movements to bovine tuberculosis (bovine TB) finishing units. Added that you can't move cattle under a general licence if the movement isn't allowed under a bovine TB control or restriction.

  4. 4 April 2014

     Updated versions of documents published

  5. 13 July 2009

     First published.

Applies to England

• Publication for Northern Ireland
• Publication for Scotland
• Publication for Wales

Documents

Part 1: General licence for the movement of cattle

HTML

Part 2: Declaration by the sender of breeding bulls moving to a market between 1 August and 30 November inclusive

ODT, 29.8 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Part 3: Declaration by the recipient of breeding bulls (including those returning unsold from a market) between 1 August and 30 November inclusive

ODT, 28.6 KB

This file is in an OpenDocument format

Annex A to C: General licence for the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/general-licence-for-the-movement-of-cattle-sheep-goats-and-pigs-annex-a-to-c/general-licence-for-the-movement-of-cattle-sheep-goats-and-pigs-annex-a-to-c

Details

The licence tells you the rules about:

• cleaning and disinfection
• movements not permitted under this licence
• standstill
• animal identification
• pick-ups, drop-offs and stops
• mixing species
• movements to and from zoos
• reporting movements

You must also record and report cattle movements.

Annex A to C tells you the rules about:

• standstill
• pick-ups, drop-offs and stops