Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the Japanese government on introducing a ban on the practice of eating live sushi.

We are aware that some restaurants in Japan offer live seafood dishes on their menus. In the UK the practice of serving live food would be illegal under the Animal Welfare Act as causing unnecessary suffering. We hope that public sentiment will move those countries where such practices are currently legal, to change their policies. However, in the absence of international laws or agreements governing this issue, the UK has no legal grounds to intervene with Japan or other countries where the consumption of live seafood is legal in domestic law.