Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the link between those who commit domestic abuse offences as well as animal welfare offences; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government is committed to animal welfare. Whilst the Government has not made a formal assessment of existing research into the link between those who commit domestic abuse offences and those who commit animal welfare offences, as a reflection of the seriousness with which we take cruelty against our animals we are supporting the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill, which seeks to increase the maximum custodial penalty for animal cruelty from six months to five years. Committee stage of the Bill in the House of Commons took place on 3 February.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the value is of service credits applied to the contracts awarded to (a) Brake Brothers and (b) BFS Group to provide food boxes for shielding vulnerable adults.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Defra Contracts with Brakes and Bidfood delivered 4.7 million food boxes to the doorsteps of the clinically extremely vulnerable in England between 27 March and 1 August 2020. The contract contained Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to cover on-time, in-full and zero defect delivery. KPIs were monitored on a daily and weekly basis. Brakes and Bidfood delivered the service in accordance with these KPIs and therefore service credits were not required.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department has developed to assist police officers to tackle crimes related to animal welfare; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The police do not normally enforce animal welfare legislation except in relation to serious organised crimes, such as dog fighting. Consequently, the police are not usually issued with guidance on animal welfare crimes. Local authorities enforce certain animal welfare laws such as those relating to the licensing of particular animal-related activities. To assist them in this responsibility, we have provided them with the necessary guidance such as that which accompanies The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018. A copy of the associated guidance can be found on GOV.UK: www.gov.uk/government/publications/animal-activities-licensing-guidance-for-local-authorities.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of banning the import of animal fur into the UK.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government shares the British public’s high regard for animal welfare and, after the transition period, the Government plans to retain current regulations banning the import of fur from domestic cats and dogs, and has laid secondary legislation to retain the ban on commercial seal hunts. Legislation has prohibited farming of animals for their fur since 2000 in England and Wales, and 2002 in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Once the UK assumes an independent seat on international bodies such as CITES and OIE we will have an opportunity to promote our high standards in these international fora.
Once our future relationship with the EU has been established there will be an opportunity for the Government to consider further the steps it could take in relation to fur imports.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2020 to Question 124350 on Pest Control: Animal Welfare, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals on animal welfare and animal-related measures.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
On 3 December, the Government launched an eight-week consultation on the ban of live animal exports for fattening or slaughter. The Government is also consulting on proposals to further improve animal welfare in transport more generally, such as reduced maximum journey times, animals being given more space and headroom during transport, stricter rules on transporting animals in extreme temperatures and tighter rules for transporting live animals by sea.
On 12 December, the Government launched proposals to ban keeping primates as pets in England, inviting the public to have their say on the issue over the next eight weeks. Findings from a recent call for evidence found that these animals' complex needs cannot be met in a home environment. Under these new plans, it will be an offence to keep a primate as a pet in England. Only those keeping primates to zoo level standards will be permitted to keep primates.
The Government is in the process of refining proposals for the manifesto commitments on the introduction of laws on animal sentience, a ban on the import of hunting trophies and tackling puppy smuggling, and will be publishing further detail in the coming weeks. We are still considering the best legislative vehicle to bring forward these reforms in the near future. We will be engaging with stakeholders and other Government departments as necessary.
Our manifesto commitment to introduce mandatory cat microchipping will be brought forward via secondary legislation in the coming months. The Government continues to support the passage of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill in Parliament to deliver our manifesto commitment to increase the maximum available penalty for the worst animal cruelty offences from six months to five years.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish his Department’s response to the consultation on the microchipping of cats in England that closed on 4 January 2020.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Government is committed to improving the welfare of cats and has a manifesto commitment to introduce compulsory microchipping of cats. In October 2019 Defra published a call for evidence on compulsory microchipping for cats, which attracted over 3,000 responses. We will be publishing a summary of the responses alongside the launch of a public consultation shortly.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Home Secretary on the legality of glue traps in capturing animals; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Rebecca Pow
The Secretary of State has had no such discussions or recent consultations.
However, this Government remains committed to high standards of animal welfare. We are in the process of developing a range of important animal welfare and animal-related measures to strengthen our position as a world leader in this field. This includes delivering our manifesto commitments to introduce new laws on animal sentience, to ban live exports, restrict the imports of trophies from endangered species and ban keeping primates as pets.
We are currently considering the best legislative vehicle to bring forward these reforms in the near future. We will be engaging with stakeholders and other Government departments as necessary.