RSPCA welfare standards - review and development

We aim to ensure that the knowledge of farming industry representatives, veterinarians, and animal welfare and production research scientists is effectively gathered and taken into account to aid the review and development of our welfare standards.

We consult widely with many stakeholders on an ongoing and ad-hoc basis to collect a wide range of evidence to aid the development of our standards. We also have a formal consultation process to review and develop the standards through implementation of our species-specific Standards Technical Advisory Groups (STAGs).

Further, in addition to the STAGs, we formally seek the views and advice of a wider group of relevant stakeholders as required to help provide broader, but still focussed, input into the standards review and development process. We internally refer to this wider group of stakeholders as our Wider Consultation Group.

Standards technical advisory groups (STAGs)

Each species-specific group's role is to advise on the development of the welfare standards so that they remain at the forefront of farm animal welfare.

Members are selected on the basis of the specific expertise they bring to the group in different areas of livestock care. Typically, an advisory group includes:

• an independent chairperson
• RSPCA farm animal welfare specialists
• representatives of large and small-scale farms (usually members of the RSPCA Assured scheme)
• animal welfare and production scientists and/or agricultural consultants
• veterinarians with expertise in the species in question
• technical/field operations representatives of RSPCA Assured

You can find more information regarding the functioning of our advisory groups in our Standards Technical Advisory Group Terms or Reference.