Database operators

Compliant databases

The databases that meet government standards are:

• Animal Microchips
• Animal Tracker
• Chipworks
• identibase
• MicroChip Central
• National Veterinary Data Service
• Protected Pet
• Pet Log
• PETtrac
• Pet Identity UK
• SmartTrace

What information you need to store

Dog keeper

You need to store information about the keeper of the dog including:

• full name
• address
• email
• phone number

Dog breeders or dealers

If they're a breeder or dealer you must keep information about their licence, including:

• their licence number or code
• the name of the council that issued it

Information about the dog

You must keep information about the dog including:

• sex
• breed and description if it's a cross-breed
• colour
• dog's date of birth or nearest estimate
• microchip number
• name and identification number

Data standards

To meet the data standards, you must:

• keep data about each dog for a minimum of 30 years from its birth date
• publish your policy on data retention and destruction
• have capacity to store retained data securely
• have a system where data can be easily retrieved
• back up data at a secure off-site facility once every 24 hours
• have a system to cross-reference data requests to other database operators

Who should you release data to

You can give data to certain people when they're:

• trying to reunite a dog with its keeper
• trying to enforce the regulations

These authorised people are:

• a vet
• a person whose job is to prevent or detect crimes against dogs
• the current keeper
• a former keeper

Database operators also need to have a system to check whether a person is authorised to get data.

The full conditions for database operators are set out on legislation.gov

If you're a database operator and would like to be listed, contact the Animal Welfare team on Animal.Health@gov.scot.