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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Animal and Plant Health Agency's guidance entitled Animal welfare on farms inspection, published on 12 January 2016, requiring complaints to be lodged before inspection of a farm.

APHA carries out inspections for a number of different reasons, including (but not limited to) in case of allegation of poor animal welfare on farm. Any allegations of poor animal welfare are logged and assessed. Where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken, this includes unannounced inspections carried out within 24 hours and follow-up inspections at a later date to confirm compliance.

Information on how to report an animal welfare concern is available on this page:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-farm-animal-welfare-concerns.