Animal Welfare

(asked on 18th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing an animal welfare commissioner to produce an annual report on the state of animal welfare in England.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 25th January 2022

This Government is committed to high levels of animal welfare, and we have set out over 40 areas in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare, published in May 2021.

The Animal Welfare Committee is a non-statutory expert committee which advises Defra and the Scottish and Welsh Governments on the welfare of animals, and would be the most appropriate body to produce reports on the state of animal welfare. The Animal Welfare Committee considers the welfare of farmed animals, companion animals and wild animals kept by people.

In 2020, the Animal Welfare Committee published a report on ‘The Animal Welfare Issues Related to Covid-19 – Short Term’, followed by a second report on ‘The Animal Welfare Issues Related to Covid-19 – Medium to Longer Term’. The Animal Welfare Committee’s reports are available on its website: Animal Welfare Committee (AWC) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

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