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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of banning imports of fur in 2022 on animal welfare.

Fur farming has been banned in the UK for over 20 years. Now we have left the EU, the Government is able to explore potential further action in relation to animal fur.

The recent call for evidence published by Defra on the fur trade in Great Britain was a key step in helping us to meet the commitment set out in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare to better understand the fur sector in Great Britain and gather evidence from those with an interest in it.

We received around 30,000 responses from businesses, representative bodies and individuals, demonstrating the strong public interest in this area. We are reviewing the evidence gathered both from our Call for Evidence and wider engagement with the fur trade and stakeholders, and a summary of responses setting out the results and key findings will be published soon.