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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to increase the maximum sentence for animal cruelty sentences from six months to five years imprisonment.

The Government has announced that it intends to increase the maximum penalty for animal cruelty from 6 months’ imprisonment to 5 years’ imprisonment. The necessary legislation needed to make this change will be introduced as soon as Parliamentary time allows.