Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on producing a draft list of proscribed activities for application under the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023 provides a framework for the introduction of future bans on the advertising and offering for sale, in England and Northern Ireland, of low-welfare animal activities abroad.
Future decisions on which specific animal activities will fall in scope of the advertising ban will be evidence-based and subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. Sufficient, compelling evidence will be required to demonstrate why any specific advertising ban is needed.
This Government continues to make animal welfare a priority and we are currently exploring a number of options to ensure progress as soon as is practicable.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to support animal welfare organisations in tackling (a) ear cropping and (b) puppy smuggling.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation, including the cropping of a dog’s ears. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 creates tougher penalties for anyone convicted of such an offence face, either being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both.
Defra supports the work of the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) which includes in its membership some of the country’s key animal welfare organisations. To ensure that advertisements for pets are legal and ethical, PAAG has developed a set of advertising standards which several of the UK’s largest classified websites have agreed to meet. The standards prohibit engaged websites from hosting adverts for dogs whose ears have been cropped.
Defra regularly engages with stakeholders, including veterinary and animal welfare professionals, on a range of animal welfare issues, including the illegal smuggling of pets into the UK.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by the hon. Member for North Devon on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the UK including prohibiting the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with local authorities to enhance enforcement against (a) puppy smuggling and (b) the sale of dogs with cropped ears.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation, including the cropping of a dog’s ears. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 creates tougher penalties for anyone convicted of such an offence face, either being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by the hon. Member for North Devon on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Defra regularly engages with stakeholders, including local authorities, on a range of animal welfare issues, including the smuggling of pets into the UK and the cropping of dogs’ ears.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many prosecutions for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal were successful in (1) 2019, (2) 2020, (3) 2021, (4) 2022, and (5) 2023.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice holds information on prosecutions, convictions and sentencing outcomes for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, covering the period requested. The latest data available, until year ending June 2023, can be obtained through the Outcomes by Offence data tool in the following link: Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Prosecutions and convictions for all years requested, from January 2019 until data is available up to June 2023, has been provided in Table 1. These totals relate to both the summary non-motoring and triable either way classifications of the offence. The full calendar year for 2023 will be available in the next update of the Outcomes by Offence tool, expected in May 2024.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department has taken help tackle the import of dogs with cropped ears since 1 January 2024.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is already an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation, including the cropping of a dog’s ears or the docking of their tails. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 creates tougher penalties for anyone convicted of such an offence face, either being sent to prison for up to five years, or receiving an unlimited fine, or both.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by the hon. Member for North Devon on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many cases of ear cropping of dogs were (a) reported, (b) investigated and (c) charged in 2023.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects information on the number of offences of ‘Carrying out, permitting, causing to be carried out or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on a protected animal’ and their investigative outcomes, recorded by the police in England and Wales, on a quarterly basis. The latest information is available up to the end of September 2023.
This shows that there were 16 offences of ‘Carrying out, permitting, causing to be carried out or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on a protected animal’ offences recorded in the first nine months of 2023. Of these cases eight resulted in the investigation being complete with charge or summonsed. Four cases are still under investigation.
Table 1, Carrying out, permitting, permitting, causing to be caried out, or failing to prevent prohibited procedure on a protected animal, England and Wales, January 2023 to September 2023
Outcome type/group | January to September 2023* |
Charged/Summonsed | 8 |
Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports action) | 2 |
Investigation complete - no suspect identified | 1 |
Further investigation to support formal action not in the public interest | 1 |
Offences not yet assigned an outcome | 4 |
Total | 16 |
*Excluding West Midlands, Humberside and Devon and Cornwall Police Force
Asked by: Sarah Dyke (Liberal Democrat - Somerton and Frome)
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 (a) publish the responses to the 2021 consultation on the commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into Great Britain and (b) commit to a legislative timeframe to ban the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are carefully reviewing the feedback gathered from our consultation and wider engagement with stakeholders, and a summary will be published in due course.
The practice of non-exempted mutilations such as cropping dogs' ears is abhorrent and has rightly been banned in the UK for over 10 years.
The Government supports the Private Members’ Bill, Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, introduced by the hon. Member for North Devon on restricting the importation and non-commercial movement of pets. The Bill will contain powers that will enable future regulations for commercial and non-commercial movements of pets into the United Kingdom including prohibiting the import of dogs with cropped ears.
Asked by: Virendra Sharma (Labour - Ealing, Southall)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent progress he has made on implementing the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023 provides a framework for the introduction of future bans on the advertising and offering for sale, in England and Northern Ireland, of low-welfare animal activities abroad.
Future decisions on which specific animal activities will fall in scope of the advertising ban will be evidence-based and subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. Sufficient, compelling evidence will be required to demonstrate why any specific advertising ban is needed.
This Government continues to make animal welfare a priority and we are currently exploring a number of options to ensure progress as soon as is practicable.
Asked by: Lord Framlingham (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the fall in overall domestic beef production resulting from the proposed changes in agricultural policies and payments.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The British beef sector is highly resilient and plays a significant role in the production of high- quality meat for both the domestic market and for export. It operates in an open market and the value of commodities is established by those in the supply chain. The government continues to work closely with the beef industry and to monitor the impacts of the range of commercial, environmental and market related factors which influence a farmer’s decision to rear beef.
The UK has a high degree of food security, built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 73% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have changed little over the last 20 years: historical production figures, including for the commodities you reference, can be found in “Agriculture in the United Kingdom”, a publication of annual statistics about agriculture in the United Kingdom at GOV.UK. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Domestically, the Government has committed to broadly maintain the current level of food we produce. This includes sustainably boosting production in sectors where there are post-Brexit opportunities, including horticulture and seafood, and the Agriculture Act imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to have regard to the need to encourage environmentally sustainable food production. Our farming reforms aim to support a highly productive food producing sector by supporting farmers to manage land in a way that improves food production and is more environmentally sustainable, and by paying farmers to produce public goods such as water quality, biodiversity, animal health and welfare and climate change mitigation, alongside food production.
Speaking at the recent National Farmers Union Conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary announced a range of measures to boost productivity and resilience in the sector, including the largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year, expected to total £427 million. This includes doubling investment in productivity schemes, bolstering schemes such as the Improving Farming Productivity grant, which provides support for farmers to invest in automation and robotics, as well as solar installations to build on-farm energy security. The Prime Minister also announced a new annual UK-wide Food Security Index, which will capture and present the data needed to monitor levels of food security, and announced plans to hold the Farm to Fork Summit annually.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to publish the findings of the post-implementation review of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has undertaken a post-implementation review (PIR) of the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the 2018 Regulations) as mandated by the regulations’ review clause. This evaluation assesses the extent to which the regulations have achieved their intended goals and identifies areas for potential improvement.
The PIR will be published soon.