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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the recent outbreak of coronavirus, if she will bring forward proposals to (a) prevent animal disease and (b) ensure animal (i) health and (ii) welfare in the Agriculture Bill.

While the initial cases of coronavirus may have been through contact with wildlife in China, this is now a human to human transmission cycle and there is no evidence for the infection in livestock in any affected country. We continue to monitor the situation.

The Agriculture Bill was introduced to Parliament on 16 January. The Bill gives the Secretary of State the power to make payments to protect and improve the health and welfare of livestock, as well as to collect and share data relating to livestock health and traceability.