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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of fast growing broiler breeds on welfare conditions.

The welfare implications of fast-growing breeds of meat chickens was considered as part of the Defra funded Systematic Review of Evidence on Livestock Breeding conducted by Queen’s University Belfast. The Government also commissioned the Animal Welfare Committee to conduct a review of livestock breeding and we expect their report to be published this summer.