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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the treatment of pigs on industrial farms; and whether she has had recent discussions with (a) World Animal Protection and (b) other animal welfare advocacy organisations on the treatment of pigs on those farms.

All pig farms regardless of scale, must comply with relevant legislation, including comprehensive animal welfare rules concerning how pigs must be kept.

In addition to the animal health and welfare legislation, Defra has a Code of Practice for the Welfare of Pigs updated in 2020, which farmers are required by law to have access to and be familiar with, which encourages high standards of husbandry. A full public consultation was held as part of the code development and work on updating the code included discussion with a wide range of interested parties.

There have been no recent discussions with World Animal Protection and other animal welfare advocacy organisations.