Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Animal and Plant Health Agency's guidance entitled Animal welfare on farms inspection, published on 12 January 2016, requiring complaints to be lodged before inspection of a farm.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
APHA carries out inspections for a number of different reasons, including (but not limited to) in case of allegation of poor animal welfare on farm. Any allegations of poor animal welfare are logged and assessed. Where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken, this includes unannounced inspections carried out within 24 hours and follow-up inspections at a later date to confirm compliance.
Information on how to report an animal welfare concern is available on this page:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-farm-animal-welfare-concerns.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to require the Animal and Plant Health Agency to publish the (a) outcomes of inspections, (b) rates of compliance and (c) types of non-compliance on farms.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB, which the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) contributes to. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Animal and Plant Health Agency procedures on providing farms with advanced notice of an inspection on the enforcement of animal welfare standards.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation.
The Animal and Plant Agency (APHA), as the national regulator for farmed animal welfare in Great Britain, undertake proactive and reactive inspections on farm to monitor compliance with legislation. The proactive inspections are risk based taking into account factors such as previous non-compliances, frequency of inspections and mortality rates. Reactive inspections are triggered by complaints and/or FSA referrals; any allegations of poor animal welfare is assessed by APHA and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken. This may include a follow-up, unannounced, inspection by APHA at a later date to confirm compliance. In most animal health and welfare cases of non-compliance, the statutory enforcement body will be the Local Authority.
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farm inspections were conducted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency following a complaint of alleged breaches of animal welfare in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation.
The Animal and Plant Agency (APHA), as the national regulator for farmed animal welfare in Great Britain, undertake proactive and reactive inspections on farm to monitor compliance with legislation. The proactive inspections are risk based taking into account factors such as previous non-compliances, frequency of inspections and mortality rates. Reactive inspections are triggered by complaints and/or FSA referrals; any allegations of poor animal welfare is assessed by APHA and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken. This may include a follow-up, unannounced, inspection by APHA at a later date to confirm compliance. In most animal health and welfare cases of non-compliance, the statutory enforcement body will be the Local Authority.
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reports the Animal and Plant Health Agency has received of alleged animal welfare breaches on farms in each of the last five years.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation.
The Animal and Plant Agency (APHA), as the national regulator for farmed animal welfare in Great Britain, undertake proactive and reactive inspections on farm to monitor compliance with legislation. The proactive inspections are risk based taking into account factors such as previous non-compliances, frequency of inspections and mortality rates. Reactive inspections are triggered by complaints and/or FSA referrals; any allegations of poor animal welfare is assessed by APHA and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken. This may include a follow-up, unannounced, inspection by APHA at a later date to confirm compliance. In most animal health and welfare cases of non-compliance, the statutory enforcement body will be the Local Authority.
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to apply lessons learned from the use of mandated CCTV footage in slaughterhouses to the enforcement of animal welfare standards on farms.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
There are key differences between farms and slaughterhouses in terms of numbers and this affects the type of inspections that are practical.
All slaughterhouses in England have Official Veterinarians from the Food Standards Agency present on-site when operating to monitor and enforce animal welfare legislation. Since 2018 it has been mandatory for all 180 operational slaughterhouses in England to have CCTV and to provide access to it. Official Veterinarians carry out a daily review of CCTV footage.
There are around 60,000 commercial livestock holdings in England. Monitoring and enforcement of animal welfare on farm is carried out on a risk basis by inspectors of the Animal and Plant Health Agency and local authorities. We continue to explore ways to strengthen compliance with animal welfare regulations.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to ensure that the Animal and Plant Health Agency acts on reports of animal welfare breaches on farms by animal protection groups.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation.
The Animal and Plant Agency (APHA), as the national regulator for farmed animal welfare in Great Britain, undertake proactive and reactive inspections on farm to monitor compliance with legislation. The proactive inspections are risk based taking into account factors such as previous non-compliances, frequency of inspections and mortality rates. Reactive inspections are triggered by complaints and/or FSA referrals; any allegations of poor animal welfare is assessed by APHA and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken. This may include a follow-up, unannounced, inspection by APHA at a later date to confirm compliance. In most animal health and welfare cases of non-compliance, the statutory enforcement body will be the Local Authority.
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the compliance by farms with animal welfare requirements.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation.
The Animal and Plant Agency (APHA), as the national regulator for farmed animal welfare in Great Britain, undertake proactive and reactive inspections on farm to monitor compliance with legislation. The proactive inspections are risk based taking into account factors such as previous non-compliances, frequency of inspections and mortality rates. Reactive inspections are triggered by complaints and/or FSA referrals; any allegations of poor animal welfare is assessed by APHA and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken. This may include a follow-up, unannounced, inspection by APHA at a later date to confirm compliance. In most animal health and welfare cases of non-compliance, the statutory enforcement body will be the Local Authority.
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps is she taking to increase the amount of animal welfare data published by the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency hold all the data related to its regulatory activity on animal welfare; they are extrapolated and made available regularly from the databases held by the relevant teams for reporting purposes. APHA has a continuing commitment to quality assurance and there are appropriate checks of the data before it is included in report for England, Scotland and Wales.
Defra publish data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within Great Britain. Defra is not considering increasing the amount of official reporting beyond that already published in these annual reports.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West and Islwyn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the (a) quality and (b) availability of animal welfare data published by the Animal and Plant Health Agency.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency hold all the data related to its regulatory activity on animal welfare; they are extrapolated and made available regularly from the databases held by the relevant teams for reporting purposes. APHA has a continuing commitment to quality assurance and there are appropriate checks of the data before it is included in report for England, Scotland and Wales.
Defra publish data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within Great Britain. Defra is not considering increasing the amount of official reporting beyond that already published in these annual reports.