Amendments made to UK’s welfare standards for laying hens

Various amendments and clarifications have been made to the the RSPCA’s Welfare Standards for Laying hens. Photo: Henk Riswick

Unprecedented concerns from UK farmers over proposed changes to the RSPCA’s Welfare Standards for Laying hens have led to a further climbdown by the assurance scheme.

Earlier this year, RSPCA Assured announced it would be pausing the implementation date of the new standards to allow it more time to provide tailored support for members.

It has now said that the strength of feeling and feedback from farmers has led to a number of amendments and clarifications to the standards.

Kelly Grellier, RSPCA Assured’s chief commercial officer, said the strength and scale of feeling and feedback on the original proposed standards had been unprecedented: “Our members are fundamental in helping us improve hen welfare and we have listened and taken action. We’ve made a number of amendments and clarifications to the standards. We hope these amendments will alleviate concerns and provide greater support to our members so they can achieve the new standards.”

These amendments include:

The implementation date has been extended from 1 February 2025 to 1 May 2025.
The implementation date for the introduction of natural daylight for all systems has been extended by 1 year (from 2031 to 2032), giving members 7 years to take this forward. The charity said it understood that many farmers had questions and concerns about the implementation and management of the standards on natural daylight and that it would commission an independent researcher to help develop in-depth case studies from farms that were already achieving 3% natural daylight. These studies would be published on the RSPCAs new laying hen hub page, which would also include an online calculator to enable farmers to calculate their current natural daylight provision through popholes. The laying hen industry has also started the process for commissioning research in this area, having sent RSPCA Assured an initial proposal, which is under review.
The new standards no longer require fences on the range to have a gap of 45cm underneath them. In line with the Egg Marketing Inspection (EMI) free-range assessment guidance, the standards will not require that any fencing or restrictions on the range must not inhibit the hens’ ability to access the range area.
For existing buildings, standards previously stated that where the base of a pophole is more than 40cm from the house floor, ramps or platforms must be provided. This has now been increased by 5cm in line with the industry standard pophole base height. RSPCA Assured has also noted that the standard does not currently apply to newly-approved buildings where at least one of the following conditions applied prior to 1 May 2025 and can clearly be evidenced:
- An existing written contract with an egg packer is already in place.
- Planning permission has already been submitted to erect the building.
- Significant capital has been invested in the affected building or its infrastructure.
The implementation date for the provision of 20% natural cover has been extended for an additional year from 1 May 2026 to 1 May 2027 to allow members 2 full planting seasons to grow the required trees and shrubs.
No free-range members are required to install verandas, which is a change from original proposals which said that any new or existing members carrying out a major refurbishment needed to install one. RSPCA Assured and the RSPCA charity will jointly engage with the industry to conduct an in-depth review of installing verandas on free-range systems. Barn members must install verandas on all buildings by 1 January 2030 with the assurance scheme now saying the requirement for newly-approved buildings to install verandas from 1 May 2024 had been removed, providing additional time for both existing and new barn production producers.

Gary Ford, head of strategy and producer engagement for the British Free Range Egg Producers Association (BFREPA), said negotiations over the past 12 months with industry representatives had led to various changes taking place: “The most significant single source of contention is still the natural daylight standards, which is due to come into force in May 2032 after being delayed. The industry, frustrated by the RSPCA Assured not agreeing to the need for UK-based commercial research to better understand the welfare impact of natural daylight on laying hens, recently decided to press ahead with commissioning this research.”

Further meetings are due to take place over the coming few weeks.