Animals (Low Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill

Aaron Bell Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 17th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Jane Stevenson). Today, St Patrick’s Day, has been a very good day for animals around the world. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson) for this Bill, and to my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) for his success with the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill. I was not able to speak on that Bill earlier today, but I put on the record my support for it; I share the hope of the former Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), that the House of Lords will not hold it up at all. I hope the same for this Bill.

The UK has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. Two centuries ago, this House passed the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822; last year, as my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford said, we passed the landmark Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022; and there have been a host of measures in between. We are indeed a nation of animal lovers. I know that my constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme feel strongly about these issues, and the same applies nationally: 72% of respondents to a YouGov poll last May said that they wanted the Government to

“pass more laws designed to improve animal welfare and protect animals from cruelty.”

The Bill, which has rightly received significant cross-party support, builds on the Government’s excellent track record on animal welfare. I pay tribute to the Minister and look forward to her response.

Let me address one issue—I was going to call it the elephant in the room, but that is a terrible, terrible joke. We cannot enforce our laws in other countries. I should make it clear that this Bill will not criminalise Brits abroad who might take an elephant ride, say, but later regret it and realise that perhaps it was exploitative. That is not what the Bill seeks to do; it seeks to prevent the advertisement of such things. The Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley takes a similar approach. I heard with respect the points that my hon. Friend the Member for North Herefordshire (Sir Bill Wiggin) made earlier about not trying to be cultural imperialists, but we are entitled to make a stand in this place, and we are entitled to say what we consider it acceptable to advertise and promote in this country.

With the import prohibition on hunting trophies, and with this Bill to ensure that we do not advertise low-welfare activities abroad, we are doing the right thing to stifle the demand that causes such grave animal suffering. The Government are right in their commitment to continue to raise the bar and take the rest of the world with us, just as we set out to do when the action plan for animal welfare was announced. I am very pleased to support both Bills today.