Found: House of Commons Library, Animal Welfare (Live Exports) Bill 2023–24 , January 2024 225 UK Parliament, Animal

Found: We can readily look to a recent example where some called for the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports)

Found: 11th Report - Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill Report

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 to stop the export of horses to Europe for slaughter.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government is banning the export of horses for slaughter through the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill which is progressing through Parliament.

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 make an assessment of the impact of his Department's publication entitled Action Plan for Animal Welfare, published on 12 May 2021, on animal welfare in (a) Dewsbury, (b) West Yorkshire and (c) the UK.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government has an ambitious agenda for animal welfare and conservation reforms, which we continue to take forward during this Parliamentary session. We will continue to introduce and support legislative and non-legislative reforms where possible.

Since the publication of the Action Plan, we have delivered on key manifesto commitments: we have increased the penalties for those convicted of animal cruelty, passed the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 and launched the Animal Sentience Committee. We have made cat microchipping compulsory and have announced the extension of the Ivory Act (2018) to cover five endangered species. In addition, we have provided for penalty notices to apply to animal welfare offences, introduced new police powers to tackle hare coursing, and banned glue traps.

We are pleased to have introduced the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill to deliver our manifesto commitment to end this trade. The Bill will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury caused by exporting live animals.

In December 2023, the Government laid the Animal Welfare (Primate Licences) (England) Regulations 2023 in Parliament and published the summary of responses to its 2023 consultation on Licensing of specialist private primate keepers in England.

Defra maintains a close working relationship with the zoo sector, and we will continue to build upon this to identify non-legislative improvements.  We aim to publish updated zoo standards early this year, which we have developed in collaboration with the sector and the Zoos Expert Committee, which raise standards and support enforcement.

Whilst no specific analysis has been undertaken for individual locations, policies regularly undergo evaluation or post implementation reviews to assess their effectiveness in meeting their animal welfare objectives.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to support abattoirs to ensure animals' journey times to slaughter are minimised; and whether he is taking steps to help improve transport conditions for animals when they undertake a journey.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

In line with our aim to support the highest standards of animal welfare, the Government launched the Smaller Abattoir Fund on 13 December 2023 to provide £4 million in grant funding to support smaller abattoirs, with one of the fund’s aims being to help preserve a sustainable network of local smaller abattoirs, which will in turn help maintain reduced journey times to slaughter for livestock.

The Government is also banning export journeys to slaughter through the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill which is progressing through Parliament.

We have consulted on a number of improvements to welfare in transport, such as maximum journey times, space allowances and temperature ranges. We published the summary of responses and Government response to this consultation in August 2021. We have been engaging with a wide range of stakeholders across all sectors on the next steps.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of welfare standards for live animals exported from the UK.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The Government consulted in England and Wales in 2020 on improvements to animal welfare in transport, including ending live animal exports for slaughter and fattening. The Government is banning export journeys to slaughter through the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill which is progressing through Parliament. Exports for purposes such as breeding, will continue to be permitted providing all legislative requirements to protect animal welfare are met. Animals exported for breeding are generally transported in very good conditions and are able to live a full and healthy life once they arrive at the destination country.

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.

Found: Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill: HL Bill 39 of 2023–24

Found: Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill 2023-24

Found: Further information: Kept Animals Bills measures are: The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill –

Found: The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill – which is only possible now we have left the European Union

Found: The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill – which is only possible now we have left the European Union

Found: List of older papers relating to the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill. 2p.

Found: Type 1 Brief overview of the SI The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill (“the Bill”) was introduced

Found: Legislative consent memorandum: the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill This report sets out the

Found: Legislative Consent Memorandum: delegated powers relevant to Scotland in the Animal Welfare (Livestock