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 ensure that closer alignment with the European Union on a Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Agreement does not adversely impact (a) animal welfare laws and (b) the ban on live exports.

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

This Government shares the British public's high regard for animal welfare and understands the strong sentiment that led to legislation to ban live exports going to slaughter.

The UK-EU Common Understanding states that there will be a number of areas where we retain our own rules. The details of these are now subject to negotiation, but we have been clear about the importance of being able to set high animal welfare standards.

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 that food labelling accurately reflects animal welfare practices.

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

The UK maintains high standards on the information that is provided on food labels so that consumers can have confidence in the food that they buy. All food sold on the UK market must comply with food labelling rules, which include the requirement for specific information to be presented in a specific way. An underpinning rule of existing legislation is that food information, whether it be mandatory or is provided voluntarily, must not mislead.

The Government is considering the potential role of method of production labelling reform as part of the ongoing development of our wider animal welfare strategy, which we will publish later this year.