England compulsory cat and dog microchipping

Dogs (by eight weeks) and owned cats (by 20 weeks) in England must carry an LF microchip registered on a Defra-compliant database, with fines up to £500. The new Single Point of Search lets vets, rescues and councils look up chips across five databases covering over 90% of registrations; it is an industry service built with Defra, not a new law.

England's rule is a low-frequency (LF) RFID mandate for pets. RFID News reported in October 2026 that the English regulations require a chip that responds to a 134.2 kHz transceiver using the FDX-B protocol, with ISO 11785 and ISO 11784 setting how the transponder talks to the reader and how its 15-digit number is structured. The chip holds that number and nothing else.

Owners must have dogs chipped by eight weeks and cats by 20 weeks, which keeps up demand for implantable transponders and for the handheld scanners used by vets, rescues and councils.

The Single Point of Search, launched on 30 September 2026 by the Association of Microchip Database Operators, is a lookup service rather than a new law. Its first phase searches Chipworks, Identi, MyPet, Petlog and PETtrac, with three further databases in the pipeline and no dated timetable for phase two.