Thank you for contacting me about animal welfare.
My ministerial colleagues and I share your high regard for animal welfare. Since 2010, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has had a strong track record in reforms. This includes: a ban on the use of conventional battery cages for laying hens; mandatory CCTV in slaughterhouses across England; a ban on the use of wild animals in circuses; the strongest ivory ban in the world; mandatory microchipping of dogs; and new regulations for minimum standards for meat chickens; and the modernisation of the licensing system for dog breeding and pet sales.
Building on these steps, in May 2021, the Government published an ambitious Action Plan for Animal Welfare, setting out future forms for this Parliament and beyond. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 raises the maximum sentence for animal cruelty from six months to five years. In addition, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 formally recognises animals as sentient beings in domestic and establishes the Animal Sentience Committee, consisting of experts within the field, to ensure that animal sentience is considered when developing policy across Government.
Legislation requiring the microchipping of cats has now been passed, requiring cat owners to microchip their cat by 10 June 2024. This will make it easier for lost or stray pet cats to be reunited with their owners and returned home safely. Further, the Government has announced that it will be extending the Ivory Act to cover five endangered species: hippopotamus, narwhal, killer whale, sperm whale and walrus.
The Government supported the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act, which will ban the advertising and offering for sale of unacceptably low animal welfare activities abroad.
I understand that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) does not consider that the time is right to consult on cage reforms, considering the challenges facing the laying hen and pig sectors. However, I am aware that the market is already moving away from using cages for laying hen production. The proportion of eggs that come from caged hens has steadily decreased, from 47 per cent of total throughput in Q4 2017, to 21 per cent in Q1 2023.
Further, the UK is ahead of most other pig producing countries in terms of zero confinement farrowing, in that 40 per cent of the national sow breeding herd farrow freely on outdoor pig units with no option of confinement. The Government’s animal welfare priorities for its Animal Health and Welfare Pathway include supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems.
Regarding labelling reforms for animal welfare, Defra ran a call for evidence in 2021 on the potential impacts of different types of labelling reform for animal welfare. Ministers will continue to work with the industry to explore how to harness the market to improve food information for consumers and raise animal welfare standards.
The Government will take forward measures in the Kept Animals Bill individually during the remainder of this Parliament, including measures relating to live exports, puppy smuggling, and the import of dogs with cropped ears. While there have been no live exports for slaughter and fattening since 2020, I know that Ministers recognise the long-standing concern over this trade are determined to end it.
Further, the abhorrent practice of non-exempted mutilations such as cropping dogs' ears has rightly been banned in the UK for 15 years. The cropping of a dog’s ears is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, however, the importation of dogs with non-exempted mutilations such as cropped ears or docked tails is still allowed under the current pet travel rules. I am aware that Ministers would support legislation to ban the import of dogs with mutilations as a single-issue Bill when parliamentary time allows.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Craig Whittaker MP
November 2023