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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions her Department has had with counterparts in (a) Austria, (b) Sweden, (c) Switzerland, (d) Norway, (e) Germany, and (f) New Zealand on their (i) banning and (ii) phasing out of farrowing crates for pigs; and what assessment she has made of the outcomes of those bans on (A) sow welfare, (B) piglet mortality, (C) farming sector viability, (D) farm-level adaptation, and (E) regulatory enforcement.

We have regular engagement with counterparts in other countries on farmed animal welfare issues, including on cages and other close confinement systems.