Cat owners must microchip their pets or face a fine under new rules being introduced.

The compulsory microchipping of felines will make it easier for lost or stray animals to be reunited with their owners and returned home safely.

Owners are being given until June 10, 2024 to microchip their cat or face a fine of up to £500 under the government's new animal law.

There are over nine million pet cats in England, with as many as 2.3 million estimated to currently be unchipped.

The new microchipping rules, laid out in parliament on Monday, follow a government consultation which ministers say received overwhelming support.

Microchipping a cat means inserting a chip, generally around the size of a grain of rice, under the skin of the pet.

The microchip has a unique serial number that the owner then registers on a database along with their contact details, so that when an animal is found, the microchip can be read with a scanner, the keeper identified and the pet quickly reunited with its owner.

The new rules mean kittens must be implanted with a microchip before they reach 20 weeks of age and their owner's contact details should be stored and kept up to date in a pet microchipping database.

It will not be compulsory for cats who live with little or no human interaction such as farm, feral or community cats.