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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will ban the use of battery cages to confine breeding pheasants and partridges used for sporting purposes.

The Government commissioned research into the use of cage rearing systems which it will publish in due course.

In the meantime, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes it an offence to cause any unnecessary suffering to an animal or to fail to provide for its welfare. In addition, the statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Gamebirds Reared for Sporting Purposes, which is made under the 2006 Act, provides game rearers with information on how to meet the welfare needs of their birds, as required under the 2006 Act.