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 potential merits of banning the sale of decapod crustaceans to be sent to consumers through the postal service or via courier while alive.

Legislation protects all animals from being transported in a way likely to cause injury or suffering. Transportation of vertebrate animals for a commercial purpose must comply fully with legal requirements aimed at protecting their welfare, set out in Regulation (EC) 1/2005 (as retained). Vertebrate animals transported for non-commercial purposes and invertebrates are protected from injury or unnecessary suffering by a general duty of care provision in Article 4 of The Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order 2006 (WATEO) and equivalent national legislation in Scotland and Wales.

WATEO requires that animals are transported in receptacles or means of transport under conditions (in particular with regard to space, ventilation, temperature and security) and with such supply of liquid and oxygen, as are appropriate for the species concerned.