As Stormont got back up and running earlier this year, controversial plans for ‘pet passports’ were stalled – but now they’re back at Westminster and special documents and microchips will be required to move dogs and cats within the UK.

For some, the plans are a relaxation of draconian measures planned under the original protocol – where all pet movements into NI from the rest of the UK would face a full EU border.

However, it won’t make it any easier for anyone trying to buy – or rescue – a pet from Great Britain. They will be treated as if they are entering the EU and face “full EU third country requirements”.

For other pet owners, the new regulations will mean pets from the mainland which don’t have the appropriate “pet travel document” will have to take their animal to an inspection facility – and face potential “suspension from the scheme”.

Owners in Northern Ireland will be required to microchip their pets in line with EU rules.

Last week Jim Allister raised the issue with the Secretary of State in Parliament – saying there was no point in the government saying it could have been worse – arguing any restrictions “shouldn’t exist at all”.

Hilary Benn focused on the fact that Northern Ireland pet owners won’t face any checks and won’t be required to hold a “pet travel document”.

But the North Antrim MP says Mr Benn “deliberately distorted” his question to avoid the sting of it.

placeholder image — Rescue pets coming into NI, like this moggy from Battersea Cats and Dogs Home, will face a full EU border.

“I plainly asked about [pet movements] GB to NI, and he pretended I was saying it affected NI pets, which was not so. Though it does very clearly affect friends and relatives bringing pets from GB to NI, which is a UK-wide issue”.

The TUV leader also says a delay in bringing in the changes was a political decision.

The scheme is part of the Windsor Framework and an attempt to soften a full border for pets under the original NI Protocol. It was originally due to come into effect in February, however that coincided with the return of Stormont under the DUP-Tory Safeguarding the Union deal. That deal made no mention of pet passports, but the issue had been politically contentious.

How you’re impacted will depend where in the UK you live. If you live in Northern Ireland, you’ll need your pet to be microchipped to take to Great Britain. But if you’re in England, Scotland or Wales you’ll need a pet travel document to bring your animal into Northern Ireland.

TUV leader Jim Allister said under the new rules it will only be possible for UK citizens to travel from GB to NI with pets if they have:

- fitted their pet with a transponder (microchip) that complies with EU Reg 576/2013;

- Applied to and joined NI Pet Travel Scheme and have secured a Pet Travel document (a pet passport) - the definition and details of which rests not with UK but with EU;

- On travelling pets must be submitted to both documentary and full identity checks when joining and leaving the boat;

- If any lack of compliance is found, then, they will be sent to an SPS facility.

Mr Allister says: “It follows that persons moving from GB to NI with pets not only suffer the indignity of foreign controls, but they effectively lose their Common Travel Area rights, which are now trumped by EU diktat. And, if they then want to travel on to the Republic (also in the CTA) they are prohibited unless they submit to full SPS border checks - so much for the fiction that you couldn’t have SPS checks at the real border!

“These regulations are an impossible and preposterous assertion of both EU rule in NI and destruction of basic constitutional rights of free movement within one’s own country.

“Once more, this audacious power-grab was unaltered by the dud DUP/Donaldson Deal.

“I will, of course, be opposing these impositions in Parliament”.

GB pet owners will need to apply for a pet travel document which is valid for the lifetime of their pet. They will also have to sign a declaration that the pet animal will not subsequently be moved into the EU.

No requirements, beyond the need for a microchip, will be placed on NI pet owners, who will be able to travel to and from GB without the need for a pet travel document.

Under the original NI Protocol – all movement of pets from GB to NI would have been subject to full EU third country requirements.