Identibase confusion

FrenchMartini

Hi! Newbie here. I have been having a back and forth with Identibase (microchipping) all day. They have been fairly (deliberately?) vague in answering my questions. The system doesn’t seem fair and after spending an age researching it it seems like there is a grey area in the law that they and others are taking advantage of?

I asked to downgrade from a paid subscription (£36 a year) to the free one. I don’t want or need their benefits or ‘perks’, I just want my two pets to continue to be registered as I am legally obliged to do. 

Identibase say I am now unable to update my contact details unless I upgrade back to the £36/ year subscription. It seems I can’t (as I understand it) just pay a one-off reasonable admin fee if and when my details change.

Is this allowed? It feels very unethical to be potentially forced back into a subscription just to update my address?

Grateful for any intel. V confusing system with so many databases. Thanks. 

john1

Beware this was subject to BBC morning live see https://x.com/BBCMorningLive/status/1930910412255465714

Also same avaliable on iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002d27r/morning-live-series-7-06062025