Is your cat microchipped?

Owners will have until June 2024 to microchip their cat in a move aimed at helping to reunite them with a lost or stray pet

All pet cats in England must be microchipped under a new law which could see their owners face a £500 fine if they do not get it done.

Millions of cats are set to be inserted with the small electronic device by June 2024 after the compulsory cat microchipping legislation was introduced in Parliament on Monday.

Under the new rules, cats must be implanted with a microchip before they reach the age of 20 weeks and their contact details stored and kept up to date in a pet microchipping database.

The aim is to make it easier for lost or stray pet cats to be returned home safely, which Environment Secretary Therese Coffey described as a time of “devastating” loss for many owners.

Any owner who is found not to have microchipped their cat will have 21 days to have one implanted, or they may face a fine of up to £500.

There are more than nine million pet cats in England, with as many as 2.3 million unchipped, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Compulsory microchipping of dogs came into effect in April 2016.

Microchipping involves inserting a chip, generally around the size of a grain of rice, under the skin of a pet.

This has a unique serial number that the keeper needs to register on a database.

When an animal is found, the microchip can be read with a scanner and the registered keeper identified on a database so the pet can quickly be reunited with them.

It will not be compulsory for free living cats that live with little or no human interaction or dependency, such as farm, feral or community cats.

Owners with cats that are already microchipped should ensure their details are up to date, Defra said.

What are your views? Is your cat already chipped?