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 assessed the adequacy of the availability of suitably qualified veterinary professionals to support bird gatherings under revised licensing rules.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

Defra takes a proportionate approach to veterinary input and oversight at bird gatherings. At all gatherings there is a requirement that a veterinary surgeon must be available to attend at short notice if birds show signs of ill-health or there are welfare concerns. Events held under general licence do not have any additional requirements for veterinary professionals, in line with the low risk assessed for these events.

For events held under specific licence, the licence conditions will be based on the APHA’s preliminary, individual risk assessment for that application. These conditions may vary, depending on the assessed risk level of the gathering.

All exotic disease prevention and control measures, including licence conditions and the need for veterinary input, are kept under regular review, and regularly discussed with APHA, as part of the government’s work to monitor and manage the risks of exotic disease.