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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she will consider increasing the transparency of operations by the Animal and Plant Health Agency in line with the Food Standards Agency's audits of slaughterhouses.

The Government acknowledges the importance of transparency in animal welfare regulation. The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) publish details of successful prosecutions in its annual report to Parliament, as required by Section 80 of the Animal Health Act, and Defra publishes APHA regulatory data in the Official Controls report under the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP). The content of these reports is regularly reviewed; however, the Government is not considering introducing additional reporting or audits beyond what is already published.