Funding for awareness raising of higher welfare lamb castration and tail docking – apply by 31 October 2026

Scottish Government has previously provided funding for vets to provide awareness raising for small producers (up to 30 hectares) in Scotland on the latest lamb castration and tail docking guidance. We are pleased to be able to re-open the scheme, and are inviting vets to apply for funding to hold awareness raising sessions.

 The information and claim pack will be available shortly. Funding is being offered on the same basis as before, with £500 available for a group session with 5 or more small producer attendees and / or £50 for a one-to-one session, up to a total of £1000 per vet. Vets who held sessions and made claims to the 2025/26 scheme are eligible to hold sessions for different clients and make claims again even if they have claimed the maximum amount for 2025/26. All sessions must take place before 31 March 2027.

If you would like to hold awareness raising sessions and claim funding from this scheme, you must let us know by 31 October 2026, so that we can pre-authorise the funding to you. Please email us at CTDTC@gov.scot to let us know you are planning to hold awareness raising sessions – giving details of how many sessions and whether they are group sessions or one-to-one – so that the funding can be pre-allocated to you. We can then pre-authorise funding for these sessions in advance, and you can submit your claim when the session(s) have been completed. It will not be possible to provide funding for claims which have not been pre-authorised by us in advance.

If there is funding remaining unallocated after the end of October, we may open the scheme again, but this is not guaranteed.

Please note that these payments will constitute a Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) Subsidy under the Subsidy Control Act 2022. The total MFA subsidy received by each vet practice over this and the two previous financial years must not exceed £315,000. You should therefore not make a claim under this scheme if the amount paid would result in your vet practice’s total MFA subsidies exceeding this amount.

You may be aware that Defra held a consultation on behalf of all the UK administrations earlier this year on proposals to change the regulations on lamb castration and tail docking. The responses are currently being analysed and so no decisions have been taken yet on whether to move forward with these legislative proposals. However, the Scottish Government is committed to improving welfare outcomes for farmed animals, and is continuing to encourage stockkeepers in Scotland to move towards higher welfare methods of lamb castration and tail docking, or to consider stopping these practices entirely in situations where that might be possible.

If you have any questions, please contact us at: CTDTC@gov.scot