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Primates: New rules make it harder to keep them as pets

Getty Images A juvenile chimpanzee in Tanzania in 2013Getty Images
New rules make it harder to keep chimpanzees and other primates as pets in the UK

The government has been told that new regulations on keeping primates as pets in England falls short of a full ban.

The new rules make it illegal to keep monkeys, lemurs, and other primates without a licence from April 2026.

Critics argued that this is not an outright ban on keeping primates as pets, as promised in the Conservative party's 2019 manifesto.

A minister said the claims that the regulations do not ban keeping primates as pets are "essentially incorrect".

The legislation, which was passed by peers on Tuesday, means that private owners of primates - such as chimpanzees, orangutans and baboons - will need to be checked by local authorities to make sure they have the right arrangements in place to properly care for the animals.

Anyone who owns a primate without the appropriate licence could face six months in jail, an unlimited fine, or both.

Getty Images A ring-tailed lemur clinging onto a tree branchGetty Images
Lemurs kept as pets are affected by the new rules

Several members of the House of Lords raised specific concerns with the legislation.

Labour frontbencher Baroness Hayman of Ullock said it was "disappointing that the regulations don't ban the keeping of primates as pets".

Former RSPCA chair and Conservative peer Baroness Fookes said that she would have liked to have seen a "straight ban on the keeping of primates by private owners", adding that it was "impossible" for most private owners to provide the "kind of natural setting that is suitable for animals of this kind".

Lord Douglas-Miller, a minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, disagreed, and called claims that the regulations do not ban keeping the animals as pets "essentially incorrect".

He added that the vast majority of animals kept as pets do not need to comply with the kinds of requirements in the new legislation.

"This is not semantics", Lord Douglas-Miller said.

"Primates have particular welfare needs that cannot be met by keeping them as a household pet and this legislation seeks to end this practice."

He added that those people who have primates in "bird cages and other wholly inappropriate conditions" will no longer be allowed to do so.

Animal charity the Humane Society International said the new legislation "should drastically reduce the number of pet primates over time", but added that it was "disappointed [...] that the new licensing scheme falls short of the ban promised by the Conservative party in its manifesto".