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 adequacy of the processes for checking for diseases in animal rescue centres.

All animal keepers, including operators of animal rescue centres, have a duty of care to prevent unnecessary suffering, and are legally obliged to report the presence of notifiable diseases to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), even if they only suspect that an animal may be affected. Failure to do so is an offence.