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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of live animals transported between the UK and its international trading partners in each of the last three years.

The number of farmed animals transported between Great Britain and its international trading partners in each of the last three years are shown in the tables below. APHA only hold export data for Great Britain. Import data has also only been provided for Great Britain for the purpose of consistent comparison.

Imports

Exports

*Farm animal figures include cattle, pigs, sheep and goats.

This excludes fish, invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians, birds (including poultry day old chicks) rabies susceptible animals and ungulates. This also excludes dogs, cats and ferrets moving into and out of the UK commercially and under the Pet Travel Scheme.

The information is held by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) on Defra’s and the Scottish and Welsh Governments’ behalf. Northern Ireland has a separate system.

The Government is committed to improving the welfare of all animals. The Government has always been clear that it would prefer animals to be slaughtered close to the point of production. EU rules prevent the UK from restricting live exports while it is a member. Our manifesto makes clear we will take early steps to control the export of live farm animals for slaughter, as we leave the European Union. We will set out proposals in due course.