Not in the U.K.,but when we lived in Oman we either rescued or ‘inherited’ from expats who were leaving, a dog, two budgies, two terrapins, and a kitten.
The kitten (there were a lot of semi feral cats around) had been found by young dds in a terrible state - very emaciated and with bleeding paws. We thought she must have been trapped somewhere.
TBH she was in such a bad way - her weight was nothing, like a handful of dead leaves - I didn’t think she’d last the night, but she ate a bit of fish finger (all I had to offer) and was still there in the morning. so I took her to the vet (an Egyptian who looked like Oman Sharif!) who said he’d never seen such an emaciated cat - it’d be better to put her to sleep.
But dds would have been so upset, so instead he gave her a shot of vitamins, IIRC, and she gradually recovered, and became very affectionate, but her forelegs were always stiff. The kids named her Mew.
After 6 months or so we were due to leave Oman - lots of people were leaving - and there was nobody to pass her to - nobody I’d have trusted, anyway.,
Not long before we left she contracted cat flu, so back to the vet, who told me she was also pregnant! He wasn’t sure she’d survive spaying, but it had to be done if we were going to take her back to the U.K.
She survived it well - the vet showed me the two-horned uterus with 4 tiny bumps - I said, ‘No babies for you, Mew,’ - the vet said, El hamdulillah! (Thanks be to Allah!)
We flew her home, she spent 6 months in quarantine, and came out sleek and glossy.
We had her back for just 2 months before she managed to get herself run over on the main road 🙁 - and our house is well away from it. Dds were so distraught.
But as I told them, she’d evidently used up her 9 lives already, and at least we’d given her some extra quality time.