Is It Illegal Not to Microchip Your Dog?

If you’ve just read a headline about fines, or had a letter you weren’t expecting, yes, it is illegal. In England, the keeper, meaning the person the dog lives with, must make sure a dog older than 8 weeks is microchipped. The rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

You won’t be fined out of nowhere. The law works through a notice first, so there’s always a chance to put things right. Our dog microchipping page covers how to book the procedure itself, and our guide to UK microchipping law sets out the rules for dogs and cats side by side.

Who can check whether your dog is chipped

In England, anyone the council or the government has authorised in writing can check whether your dog is chipped, and so can police officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs). An authorised person can take possession of your dog without your consent to check whether it’s chipped.

The 21-day notice and what it asks

In England, if your dog isn’t chipped, an authorised person can serve you a notice requiring you to have it microchipped within 21 days. If you don’t comply, they can arrange for the dog to be chipped without your consent and recover the cost from you. You also have the right to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, and the appeal puts the notice on hold until it’s decided.

The fine for not microchipping your dog

There’s no on-the-spot £500 fine. In England, ignoring a 21-day notice is an offence, and a court can fine you up to £500.

Enforcement is less common than the headlines suggest. Battersea Dogs and Cats Home’s 2019 survey of 369 local authorities found that 21-day notices were issued in an estimated 13% of cases. Where fines were given, they ranged from £20 to £500.

Part of the reason, in Battersea’s view, is that no statutory body has a legal duty to enforce the regulations. A Defra review in 2021 also found that enforcement varied between local authorities. So while the law is clear, how actively it’s pursued depends on where you live. None of that is a reason to leave your dog unchipped. The fix is quick, and you can register the microchip with Pet Database once it’s done.

Reasons not to microchip your dog

In England, there are only two situations where a dog falls outside the standard microchipping rules, and only one of them means the dog can go without a chip.

Your vet says microchipping would harm your dog’s health. A vet can certify on an approved form that your dog shouldn’t be microchipped for health reasons. The certificate must state how long the exemption lasts. When that period ends, the normal duty to microchip applies again.

Your dog is a certified working dog with a docked tail. Tail docking is banned in England, with a narrow exception: a vet can certify and dock a puppy within its first five days, if the puppy is likely to work in areas such as law enforcement, the armed forces, emergency rescue, pest control or lawful shooting. These dogs sit outside the standard microchipping rules. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 already sets out separate requirements for them:

• The owner must have the dog microchipped before it’s 3 months old.
• The chip must be implanted by a vet, or by a vet nurse under a vet’s supervision.
• The vet must record the chipping on the dog’s docking certificate.

An owner who doesn’t take reasonable steps to have this done commits an offence. So a docked working dog still has to be microchipped, just under a different law. Our page on microchipping law exemptions explains these in more detail.

Anything else, such as cost, worry about the procedure or simply not having got round to it, isn’t a legal reason. If that sounds familiar, the next step is booking the chip and registering it.

What if your chip details are out of date

A quick refresher on how it hangs together: the chip holds only a number, and your contact details live on the database record it points to. It’s the record that drifts out of date when you move or change your number. Some headlines suggest stale details mean a 21-day notice and a £500 fine, but that’s not how England’s regulations read. The only notice an authorised person can serve requires you to get an unchipped dog microchipped within 21 days, and the regulations include no equivalent notice about updating your details.

The one place the regulations require changed details to be recorded is when a dog moves to a new owner. GOV.UK says you’re responsible for keeping details up to date when you move house or change your phone number, and that a database may charge a fee for updates. So it’s worth checking your record today.

Once the chip is in, register your pet with Pet Database, and keep your contact details current so the record works if your dog is ever found.