Asked by: David Simmonds (Conservative - Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to help ensure that people who neglect their horses are prosecuted.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 amends the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act) to provide one of the toughest sanctions in Europe and strengthens the UK's position as a global leader on animal welfare. The 2006 Act, as amended in 2021, now means a maximum sentence of five years and/or an unlimited fine will apply to the most serious animal cruelty offences, including causing unnecessary suffering, and is a significant step forward in improving animal welfare.
Local authorities have powers under the 2006 Act to act where a horse is suspected to be suffering on any land, public or private. In such circumstances, the local authority may enter the land and take control of the animal.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help ensure former race horses are not slaughtered for meat.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government is committed to the highest standards of animal welfare, including at slaughter. Ensuring the welfare needs of racehorses are well met, both during their racing lives and afterwards, is a priority.
Slaughter in an approved abattoir is a humane option for some horses, provided the animal is fit to transport and the journey time is not excessive. Legislation sets out strict requirements to protect the welfare of horses when slaughtered and official veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency are present in all approved slaughterhouses to monitor and enforce animal welfare requirements.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will introduce legislation to increase transparency in (a) investigations, (b) police reports and (c) prosecutions into cases of equine welfare.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 amends the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (the 2006 Act) to provide one of the toughest sanctions in Europe and strengthens the UK's position as a global leader on animal welfare. The 2006 Act’s maximum sentence of five years and/or an unlimited fine applies to the most serious animal cruelty offences, including causing unnecessary suffering, and is a significant step forward in improving animal welfare.
The 2006 Act is backed up by the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Horses, Ponies, Donkeys and Their Hybrids which provides owners with information on how to meet the welfare needs of their equines, as required by the 2006 Act. The Code of Practice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-practice-for-the-welfare-of-horses-ponies-donkeys-and-their-hybrids.
Mentions:
1: Lord Douglas-Miller (Con - Life peer) lovers, with some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. - Speech Link
2: Lord Trees (XB - Life peer) Horses are included in the Bill, which I welcome, as does the charity World Horse Welfare. - Speech Link
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she plans to direct the Horse Race Betting Levy Board to increase the proportion of the levy for aftercare provision for vulnerable horses leaving the racing industry.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is aware of the vital work the horseracing industry does in supporting and retraining former racehorses. However, we have no current plans to direct the Levy Board to make amends to levy schemes.
The Horserace Betting Levy Board’s expenditure covers all its three statutory purposes, all of which support horse welfare to some extent, with one of their goals to drive high quality care and support for the horse in Racing. In total, the Horserace Betting Levy Board spends around £3.5 million annually on horse-related areas, such as educational research and on a number of horse welfare projects. The Levy Board funds the Retraining of Racehorses charity, which is British Horseracing's official charity for the welfare of horses who have retired from racing.
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) is responsible for the safety of horses at races in Britain and works with animal welfare organisations like the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare to keep racecourses as safe as possible for horses. The British Horseracing Authority created a cross-industry Horse Welfare Board in April 2019. The Board makes recommendations including a multi-year strategy for improving welfare. In February 2020, the Welfare Board published its five-year strategic plan for the welfare of horses bred for racing. The strategy focuses on the ambition that every horse bred to race should lead – and be seen to lead – “a life well-lived”. The Horse Welfare Board is funded by the HBLB and The Racing Foundation.
Furthermore, in April 2024 the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Great British Racing (GBR) launched a new campaign, HorsePWR, designed to promote the facts around welfare in horseracing and challenge and correct inaccurate information shared by people who are opposed to it.
Mentions:
1: None To ensure that our own excellent farmers, who have high animal welfare standards, are not undercut by - Speech Link
2: Lord Douglas-Miller (Con - Life peer) Furthermore, all imports of live animals must be transported in accordance with our animal welfare in - Speech Link
3: Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con - Life peer) We are discussing animal welfare today but I am very conscious of the impact on the farming community - Speech Link
4: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab - Life peer) The BVA is asking that there be a well-defined set of animal health and welfare standards which must - Speech Link
5: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer) In my view, animal welfare should not be devolved; animal welfare is animal welfare wherever it is and - Speech Link
Mentions:
1: Steve Barclay (Con - North East Cambridgeshire) via the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022. - Speech Link
2: Steve Barclay (Con - North East Cambridgeshire) , which was founded in 1927 to stop the export of horses for slaughter.Live animal exports have been - Speech Link
3: Ruth Jones (Lab - Newport West) could make one of them animal welfare Minister. - Speech Link
4: Steven Bonnar (SNP - Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) Collaborative efforts between the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission and the UK Animal Welfare Committee - Speech Link
5: Tim Farron (LD - Westmorland and Lonsdale) 14 pledges on animal welfare. - Speech Link
Found: a number of campaigns by animal welfare organisations since the 1990s, aiming either to end live animal
Mentions:
1: George Eustice (Con - Camborne and Redruth) Everyone says that they give the budget to you now and that you are in charge of delivering animal welfare - Speech Link
2: George Eustice (Con - Camborne and Redruth) Why is it always the animal welfare sector that has to deal with the external costs of horseracing and - Speech Link
3: Stuart Andrew (Con - Pudsey) but to animal welfare in general. - Speech Link
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s welfare arrangements regime for the live export of (a) horses, (b) donkeys and (c) ponies.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No such recent assessment has been made. The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, will ban the live export of horses, donkeys and ponies for slaughter from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury caused by this trade.