What the 2018 licensing rules actually ask of your cattery

If you board cats or dogs for commercial gain in England, you need a licence from your local authority under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations 2018. Wales and Scotland run parallel schemes. The rules replaced the old 1963 boarding licence, and the biggest change for most established businesses wasn't the licence itself — it was the paperwork the inspector now expects to see.

The star rating, briefly

Your licence comes with a risk rating and a star rating from one to five. Higher stars mean a longer licence (up to three years) and fewer inspections; a low rating means annual renewal and more scrutiny. Two things move the rating: whether you meet only the minimum standards or the higher optional ones, and the inspector's judgement of your risk. Good record-keeping is one of the cheapest ways to push the risk score down.

Written procedures inspectors ask for

• A vaccination policy, and proof you check every animal's records before a stay
• An emergency plan covering fire, escape, and a vet you can reach out of hours
• A cleaning and disinfection routine, written down, with the products you use
• Individual records for each animal: owner contact, feeding, medication, vet

None of this has to be elaborate. What trips people up is being asked for a record on the day and having it in three different notebooks. Inspectors respond well to one tidy system they can be shown in a minute.

Vaccination records are the common slip

The single most-cited gap at inspection is vaccination evidence: knowing a cat is up to date is not the same as being able to show the expiry date on demand. Keep the status and the expiry against each animal, check it at booking rather than at drop-off, and you remove the most predictable source of friction — both with the inspector and with an owner who turns up without the paperwork.

This isn't legal advice — your local authority's licensing team is the authority on how the conditions apply to your premises, and it's worth a friendly call before your first inspection. But a business that keeps clean, retrievable records rarely has a hard time with the 2018 regulations.