Frequently Asked Questions
LI Ltd is developing England's Livestock Information Service with the ability to trace multiple species through one system. This will be launched in a phased approach, with the aim of rolling the new LIS cattle service to all cattle keepers by summer 2026. Existing livestock traceability systems, including the cattle traceability service (CTS), will remain in place until multispecies services are fully operational.
The first traceability service to be launched will be for cattle, replacing the existing and outdated Cattle Traceability Service (CTS). This will be launched in phases, starting with a private beta for a small number of selected cattle keepers and in time, extending the criteria to invite selected 3rd Party Software providers.
This phased approach will allow any issues to be resolved quickly and ensure a smoother transition for all users. The aim is to roll out the new LIS cattle service to all cattle keepers by summer 2026.
The enhanced Livestock Information Service for England will offer more data capture capabilities than the current version of LIS used for sheep. This will enable faster, better-informed decisions on controlling disease outbreaks, provide data to help improve animal health and welfare, give further assurances on food safety, support productivity, and facilitate trade.
A public consultation is a process which involves members of the public providing their views and feedback on changes or updates to a particular policy or proposal. Defra's consultation on Changes to Bovine Identification, Registration and Movement can be viewed on Gov.uk here.
The new system is designed to be future proof, ensuring it can accommodate changes from the bovine consultation and any future legislative updates. This flexibility allows the system and services to adapt seamlessly to new requirements.
On Monday 2 June 2025, the much-anticipated government announcement took place, which outlines Defra's plans to introduce changes to cattle identification, registration and reporting from Summer 2026. These new regulations have been shaped by the responses to the public consultation in late 2023.
This announcement confirmed that Bovine Electronic Identification (BEID) will be introduced for all newborn calves in England from a set date in 2027, using low frequency (LF) technology. Industry will then transition to a fully electronically identified cattle population over time, meaning there will be a period where non-BEID and BEID animals both exist in tandem in the national herd. During this time, animal movements will be able be reported using either EID reads, barcode scans from passports or visual reading of tags as it is currently done. As such, there is no need to retag the national herd