Business of the House

David Amess Excerpts

Thursday 8th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. As usual, a great many Members are seeking to catch my eye, and I shall do my best to accommodate their interest. However, I must remind the House that there are no fewer than three Government statements and two Select Committee statements to follow these exchanges, before we even reach the debate that is due to take place under the auspices of the Backbench Business Committee and the debate that will follow that, so there is a premium on brevity from Back Benchers and Front Benchers alike. If colleagues have scripted screeds as prefaces to questions, may I very politely suggest that they abandon those scripted screeds? Let us just have the pithy questions.

[Sir David Amess (Southend West) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend find time for a debate on banning UK tour operators from advertising and selling rides on Asian elephants? Those wonderful animals are often abused when in training, and I am sure that no UK visitor would want to condone that.

[Andrea Leadsom]

As ever, my hon. Friend has raised a question that is of huge interest to the United Kingdom, a nation of genuine animal lovers. I am proud of the fact that we have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. We do not believe that changing the law in the UK would make a significant difference, but we absolutely agree that making people aware of the situation and allowing them to judge for themselves is likely to result in UK tourists’ addressing the problem with their feet.