Farmed Animals: Cages and Crates

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[Terry Jermy (South West Norfolk) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for opening the debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee.

The debate has attracted a lot of interest in my South West Norfolk constituency, where we care passionately about the environment, climate and animal welfare. As has been observed, our area has plenty of chickens and pigs—they are all around us in my constituency; frankly, they are our neighbours and we are acutely aware of their welfare—so it is no wonder that so many residents have been in touch with me over the last year.

Every year in the UK, over 7 million farmed animals are confined to cages for all or part of their lives. Twenty per cent of the UK’s eggs are produced in those cages and, as has been observed, battery cages and enriched battery cages, in which hens have space the size of an A4 sheet of paper, remain legal. In farrowing crates, sows are unable to turn around, nestle their piglets or express natural roosting or nest-building behaviours. These restrictions lead to severe welfare problems for sows and piglets. It is important to recognise that many of these crates and cages prevent key natural behaviours.

Fortunately, all UK supermarkets have either already stopped selling eggs from caged hens or committed to do so by the end of 2025. However, it is estimated that once those commitments are realised, around 10% of the UK’s hens will remain in cages. That is 10% too many.

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

The RSPCA’s assured scheme now accounts for 55% of the UK’s laying hens and 25% of its pigs. Does my hon. Friend agree that that demonstrates that there is increasing public support for higher welfare meat and eggs, even if the cost is slightly higher as a result?

[Terry Jermy]

I entirely agree. It is through the good work of organisations like the RSPCA that we can increase awareness of those improved standards.

As I have mentioned in this Chamber recently, and as was reported in The Guardian last week, through freedom of information requests I have found that industrial farms broke environmental regulations, including those relating to animal welfare, nearly 7,000 times in the last 10 years. For example, a farm was found to be stocking more than 400,000 animals, instead of the permitted 357,000. The permitted amounts are already very high, so any increase over and above them will cause further distress for animals. Given the numbers involved, I worry about routine overcrowding and a lack of regulation.

It is important to consider the implications of that intensity for disease. A National Audit Office report on animal resilience published this month revealed that there are serious gaps in the UK’s ability to respond to major outbreaks of animal diseases, including bird flu and foot and mouth, which have cost farmers and the Government millions of pounds. We must recognise that human health and animal health are linked.

We need to have a serious conversation about what sort of farming we want to pursue. As the Minister will know, I grew up in Norfolk, I am from Norfolk and I visit farms routinely. Farmers are under increasing pressure from a whole range of factors: disease, profitability, climate change, drought and more. Most farmers I know in South West Norfolk care passionately about their animals and want to do all they can to improve animal welfare, but, as has been highlighted, they need support with that transition. Fundamentally, this issue comes down to fairness—fairness in finances, and in labelling too. In a recent debate, some really interesting points were made about labelling, and how fairness is at the heart of it, so that the public can make informed choices.

The NFU estimates that it would cost between £5,000 and £8,000 to replace each of the 60,000 conventional farrowing crates that are currently in use across the UK. That transition must be supported by the market and some financial provision or incentive, either through infrastructure grants or via the supply chain, to make it viable for producers and to ensure that it does not put businesses out of pig production. It is crucial that the transition is staged and well supported by the Government and, where relevant, devolved Governments, to support our farming communities.

While I have the opportunity to do so, I pay tribute to the various animal welfare organisations campaigning and raising awareness of these issues, which is so important. They include the RSPCA, which has been mentioned, but also World Animal Protection, Compassion in World Farming and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Non-stun Slaughter of Animals

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Westminster Hall

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

I start by acknowledging that this is an extremely sensitive debate. We have heard some really thoughtful contributions, for which I am grateful to Members, and I really hope that the debate continues in that tone.

Constituents on all sides of this debate have emailed me; I have heard from the local mosque, but also from a number of people who are concerned primarily by animal welfare. I am grateful that the tone of those emails has been appropriate, and not of the sort that my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi) rightly mentioned. I want in particular to acknowledge the point that she made that the vast majority of meat in this country is non-halal and non-kosher and that, too often, the welfare standards of that meat are poor.

As a lifelong RSPCA supporter, I am strongly of the opinion that our Government should take further measures—I believe that they are—to ensure that the majority of meat consumed in this country is produced to the highest possible standards of animal welfare. One issue that has not been raised is the increasing number of people getting meat from out of home—from a takeaway, rather than a supermarket. Outside of the debate on halal and kosher meat, I know that the Government are looking at that issue. We often do not know the welfare standards of the meat that we buy from a takeaway, which is a problem when more and more of us—I include myself in that—are eating takeaway food. When we buy from a supermarket, we can look for the Red Tractor or free range mark. I think that is an area that needs to be looked at. I also recognise what others have said about how, unfortunately, a lot of people who raise this issue do so not because of animal welfare concerns, but from a place of Islamophobia or antisemitism. That is completely unacceptable.

As a supporter of the RSCPA who has donated to it and volunteered with it all my life, I want to highlight one of its recommendations to Members. It suggests the adoption of a permit system for non-stunned meat, to allow the tracking of the number of animals slaughtered without prior stunning. I want the Government to consider whether that might be of merit, just to ensure that the volume and proportion of such meat is appropriate. That is the only contribution that I wish to make to the debate, and I hope that the Minister will consider it.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Taylor Excerpts

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

The Solicitor General was asked—

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

1. What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on prosecuting knife offences.

[Jas Athwal (Ilford South) (Lab)]

4. What recent discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on prosecuting knife offences.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I welcome the Solicitor General to the Front Bench.

[David Taylor]

Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker.

I have had reports of people carrying machetes in Livingstone Walk, an area in Grovehill, Hemel Hempstead, with the Dacorum local crime unit investigating one incident of alleged robbery at knifepoint. Knife crime is not our only issue in Hemel; we have the highest rate of antisocial behaviour in the county, and we are the most dangerous town in Hertfordshire. That is a direct result of Conservative Governments taking 20,000 police off our streets nationwide, removing 60p out of every pound from local authority budgets and failing to act on antisocial behaviour. What further steps is the Solicitor General taking to ensure that violent thugs are not allowed to run riot and are brought to justice?

[The Solicitor General]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this important matter. Knife-enabled robberies surged under the previous Government, which is why the Home Secretary has made tackling these offences an urgent priority. Enforcement is key, and that is why we are putting police back on the beat with a named officer for every neighbourhood.

Rural Affairs

David Taylor Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[David Taylor (Hemel Hempstead) (Lab)]

It gives me enormous pride to be stood before you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to make my maiden speech as Hemel Hempstead’s MP. I pay tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) and for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane). I know Stirling well through my involvement in the Make Poverty History campaign; it is a very beautiful place.

I am grateful to make my maiden speech in the presence of the Secretary of State, who was generous with his time in my constituency during the election. I am humble enough to accept, however, that the primary reason for his presence was usually the fact that his mother resides in Hemel Hempstead and is a member of the local party.

In this debate about rural affairs, I want to start by paying tribute to the beautiful countryside that surrounds our town, and to the villages that are part of the constituency following the changes to the boundaries at the last election. From St Lawrence’s church in Bovingdon, where I was this morning to mark Armistice Day, to Chipperfield cricket club and the Green Dragon pub in Flaunden, we are blessed with many picture postcard scenes—and my dog, Albert, is particularly fond of chasing squirrels on Chipperfield common.

Turning to Hemel itself, the old town is so picturesque that one local council official jokingly referred to it as Hemelwood, such is its popularity as a filming location for local TV and movies. We were once home to the site of a major Roman villa on the River Gade, which supposedly had the biggest Roman bath outside Bath itself.

When Hemel town council was amalgamated into a new district council, exactly 50 years ago this year, the then Labour leader of the council, Gordon Gaddes, who is still a stalwart in our community even though he is now in his 90s, chose an old Latin name for the council—Dacorum, which means “of the Dacians”, referencing a period in Saxon times when Danish law applied due to the presence of the Vikings. We also have a long-standing connection to Henry VIII, who in 1539 granted the town its market charter. Because of him, the mighty Hemel Hempstead Town FC are nicknamed the Tudors.

Like many others, my family’s connections to the area come from the creation of the new town after the second world war. This new town was one of Labour’s finest achievements, providing families with decent housing, good-quality factory jobs, education and healthcare. From Chaulden where my dad grew up to Highfield where my mum did, and Adeyfield where my nan lives now, council housing surrounded a square with amenities such as shops, a community centre, a place of worship, a GP surgery and schools. I therefore welcome our new Government’s commitment to build genuinely affordable housing and new council homes, while also ensuring that the right infrastructure accompanies them. As we seek to build new towns around the UK, I would be happy to show Ministers the virtues of our ingenious, and often misunderstood, magic roundabout.

I pay tribute to my predecessor, Sir Mike Penning. It was not just our community that he served with loyalty, but this nation: Sir Mike was a distinguished Grenadier Guardsman in the British Army and subsequently served as a firefighter in Essex. In his maiden speech he said that when he left this House he wanted to be known as a good constituency MP. He certainly was, doggedly taking up his constituents’ individual cases when they needed him.

I also pay tribute to our two previous Labour MPs: Tony McWalter, who was kind enough to take me under his wing when I was a member of the UK Youth Parliament, and Lord Corbett. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to meet Robin, but I know from my friendship with his widow, Lady Val, that he was a wonderful, warm and kind man who served his constituents with compassion.

That leads me to the points that I will prioritise as I serve the people of Hemel Hempstead. First, I will strive to improve local healthcare, including by pushing for a new community hospital. In line with this Government’s commitment to neighbourhood-based care, and enjoying the support of the local NHS trust, the local council and my predecessor Sir Mike, I will push hard for the project to advance in the most ambitious way possible, as well as ensuring that access to GPs and dentists improves.

I will make sure that children in Hemel Hempstead, particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities, get the best possible education. The SEND situation, not only in Hertfordshire but in Dacorum itself, is particularly bad; the issue came up repeatedly when I was talking to voters as a candidate, and it is at the top of my postbag now as an MP. At one of my most recent surgeries one parent, Natasha, told me that her son Alfie had been diagnosed with autism aged five, yet he has been repeatedly refused an education, health and care plan and has been waiting for a specialist appointment for almost two years. Sadly, her story is one that Members of this House will know all too well. I am glad the issue is an area of priority for our new Government, and I will continue to work on it on a cross-party basis as a member of the all-party parliamentary group on SEND.

I will also prioritise combating crime. Recent stats show that Hemel was the one of the worst towns in Hertfordshire for antisocial behaviour—indeed, it was the worst major town—while vehicle crime is at 105% of the national crime rate. I have seen that at first hand when I have had the opportunity to go out with local bobbies on the beat. I will work hard to make our community safer, whether by getting more police officers in our town or by working to reopen the front desk at Hemel police station.

I know that the cost of living crisis is hurting people locally. Food bank use has gone up 1,000% in the past 10 years in my constituency. I applaud the work that local charities such as DENS, Community Action Dacorum and Hemel Hempstead Community Fridge are doing to help. I am doing everything I can to stand alongside them, but I also pledge to push for better decisions to be made here in Westminster to ensure that food banks do not need to exist at all.

In concluding his maiden speech, Sir Mike paid tribute to the person who brought him into politics, the late Sir Teddy Taylor—no relation; it is a common name—and it is only fitting that I do the same. After taking part in the UK Youth Parliament, I thought long and hard about which great cause I wanted to focus my time and energy on. I got involved with the Make Poverty History campaign; I still have the wristband around my wrist. I attended a rally exactly 20 years ago outside the Labour conference, where I heard the then Chancellor Gordon Brown speak in thunderous terms of our duty to help those less fortunate than ourselves. A few years later, I had the enormous privilege of working for him, with my newly elected hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Kirsty McNeill). Many within these walls and beyond will recognise his—and her—unrelenting dedication and drive to improve the lives of others, which inspires me to this day.

Finally, I add my name to those who have paid tribute to Jo Cox in their maiden speech. With the Labour Campaign for International Development, and now as a member of the International Development Committee, I remain committed to taking forward her legacy, particularly on the responsibility to protect civilians, which is so urgent everywhere from Ukraine to Syria to Sudan.

As Gordon said on the eve of the poll back in July, we have a choice in the UK and around the world: to succumb to pessimism or to embrace hopefulness and remember that, in Jo’s words,

“we are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.”—[Official Report, 3 June 2015; Vol. 596, c. 675.]

I will do my utmost, as long as I have the honour of representing the people of Hemel Hempstead, to push for a more hopeful future in our community, our country and our world.

[Several hon. Members rose—]