Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the degree to which the Cayman Turtle Farm is a humane captive breeding facility.

The elected government of the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, has devolved constitutional responsibility for animal welfare and conservation including for legislation and policies governing the Cayman Turtle Farm. The UK is responsible for the international relations of the Cayman Islands and for their compliance with obligations arising under international law. The UK has extended the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to the Cayman Islands. The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is providing technical support and advice to support the Cayman Islands in fully meeting its international environmental and conservation obligations. The UK CITES Management Authority has not made a recent assessment of whether the Cayman Turtle Farm is a humane facility, but did commission an independent investigation in 2002 in support of an application for registration as a captive-breeding operation under CITES, which found it was a humane facility.