Over 20 pieces of animal welfare legislation are to be tied together in one bill under government plans announced in the Queen's Speech.

The Animal Welfare Bill will update regulations applying to dog and cat boarding establishments, riding establishments, performing animals, pet shops and dog breeding.

New regulations will also be introduced for animal sanctuaries, pet fairs, livery yards and racing greyhounds.

Penalties for animal cruelty will be increased in an update of the 1911 Protection of Animals Act, while the definitions of offences and penalties relating to animal fighting will be strengthened.

A duty of care on animal owners will be extended to all kept animals, including farm animals, through new codes of practice. 

Extra powers will be granted to those involved in animal welfare inspection activities, while the range of sentences available to the courts will be extended. 

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs also pledged to improve the law on disqualification orders "to address the forms of circumvention that have been employed under existing legislation".

In addition, secondary legislation will be allowed to introduce codes of practice, modernise existing licensing regimes and introduce new ones.

Rural delivery

The government has also published two draft environment bills, focused on improving the regulation of the countryside.

The draft Commons Bill follows the rural white paper, and aims to enhance the level of protection given to land that is recognised as "providing a significant part of the rural cultural identity of England and Wales".

Under the proposals farmers with grazing rights, known as "commoners", would be granted the powers to regulate their activities by setting up and operating new statutory commons associations, which will have legal powers to adopt rules by majority vote that are then binding on all members.

Mechanisms would also be put in place to bring up to date and maintain registers recording the ownership of common land and grazing rights.

The draft Modernising Rural Delivery Bill will form a central part of implementing the government's rural strategy. 

Under the plans a new integrated agency would be established, bringing together work by English Nature, parts of the Countryside Agency and most of the Rural Development Service.

Measures will also be introduced to improve the flexibility of service provision in rural areas, and to streamline and simplify existing legislation relating to the countryside and wildlife.