Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill

Trudy Harrison Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 3rd February 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Trudy Harrison)]

I, like other right hon. and hon. Members in this House, wish to pay tribute to, and thank immensely, my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson) for all her hard work on this Bill. I also thank my officials across the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for supporting her. Perhaps I can give her some comfort: I introduced, as a private member’s Bill, the Wild Animals in Circuses Bill. In 2019, with the support of Government, that Bill received its Royal Assent. These private Members’ Bills and sitting Fridays really make a tremendous difference.

My hon. Friend set out, somewhat graphically, exactly why we in DEFRA are supporting this important Bill. If anyone is in any doubt about this, then they should review the work of Save the Asian Elephants. I understand why people, especially parents, would want their children to have some experience of a wild animal—I myself am a mum to four girls. However, the clue is in the description: it is important that the experience is about observing, not forcing the changed behaviour of a wild animal to enable our up-close and wholly unnatural experience.

The hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard) talked about dolphins. Although we are looking, with this Bill, to develop primary legislation, secondary legislation will give us the opportunity to be specific about the species, and I will go into further detail on that later in my speech. My hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Scott Benton) made reference to the Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019. I will take up his invitation to visit the zoo that does so much good work in Blackpool, and thank him for supporting the Bill.

We see the Bill as an important contribution to our ambitious animal welfare reforms that we have been making since this Government came to power. I manage 40 workstreams on our animal welfare action plan. All are making considerable progress, but there is no provision within the law to regulate the advertising and sale of animal activities abroad. That means that unacceptably low welfare activities can currently be advertised to tourists by domestic travel agents.

The hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport and I share a common history, because I, too, worked as a travel agent. I know that it is difficult to understand whether an activity, which seems incredibly desirable, offering as it does a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, is high or low animal welfare.

The Bill will ensure clarity. Animals used in the tourist trade are often subjected to brutal and cruel treatment to ensure their compliance. Our concerns relate not just to the activities themselves, but to the severe training methods that are used to train and sometimes force the animals to behave in the desired way. Any change we can make here in the United Kingdom to raise animal welfare standards across the globe is a positive.

In response to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford about influencers, with the knowledge that we now have about animal welfare, the unacceptable treatment of animals for human entertainment cannot be condoned and such influencers absolutely depend on their followers. I am sure that the work that has been done to date, and the fact that we are gathered in the Chamber to speak about the need for wild animals to have high animal welfare, will send a strong message.

The Government take the welfare of all animals seriously and are committed to raising standards of animal welfare both at home and abroad. Introducing domestic advertising bans sends a strong signal from the Government that the only acceptable tourist attractions are ones where the animals do not suffer and that contributes to the UK’s position as a world leader on animal welfare. To date, the Government have carried out ambitious reforms that we committed to in the 2021 action plan for animal welfare. They include the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act 2022 and the Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022. We are also pleased to support the private Members’ Bills on shark fins and trophy hunting.

More specifically on low-welfare animal activities, the Government’s action plan for animal welfare stated:

“In line with setting a global example on animal welfare…We will legislate to ban the advertising and offering for sale here of specific, unacceptable practices abroad.”

Alongside Government support for the Bill, there is widespread public support for such measures. World Animal Protection and Oxford University have estimated that up to 550,000 wild animals are exploited in the tourism industry across the globe.

[Luke Pollard]

The Minister is making a good speech about the importance of the Bill. May I just take her back to the advertising of low-welfare animal products abroad? When the Bill goes to Committee, will she and her officials work with the hon. Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson) to see whether the provision of a digital click through would be captured by the advertising restriction, or, as in some cases in travel law, would it sit outside that? We do not want someone buying a holiday online to have adverts or links that can be clicked to take them to a site outside the UK, where they could buy such activities in the same purchasing period as buying their holiday. Will she ensure that that can be captured, because it could be a workaround that the companies that wish to continue selling the products exploit?

[Trudy Harrison]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I will take the Bill through its legislative stages. I reassure him that I understand that that would be beneficial and that I will meet him and look into that with my officials before we go to Committee.

It is clear that the British public do not accept low animal welfare standards. The recent poll conducted by World Animal Protection revealed that 81% of UK respondents agreed that countries should stop the commercial exploitation of wild animals. In the same poll, 85% of respondents believed that wild animals had the right to a wild life.

[Sir Christopher Chope]

Does the Minister think that the provisions in the Bill could cover, for example, people who go whale watching in South Africa?

[Trudy Harrison]

To give a very brief answer to a very brief question, my first instinct is, absolutely not because people watch whales in their natural environment behaving in a natural way. The problem comes when we force wild animals to behave unnaturally in captive environments for our benefit up close and personal. As far as I understand it, that is not what my hon. Friend was referring to.

There is no specific reference to Asian elephants in the Bill, but we anticipate they will be covered under the Bill. Alongside the general support for the measures in the Bill, there is particularly strong support for Government intervention in relation to low-welfare activities involving Asian elephants. Asian elephants often undergo brutal training to break them in and make it safe for them to be in the vicinity of tourists. Methods include being chained up for long periods without access to food or water and being beaten with bullhooks to gain compliance. Elephants are often forced into unnatural activities, such as playing football, painting and tourist rides. As Members will have heard last Tuesday in the Adjournment debate secured by my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith), Asian elephant rides, performances and experiences are often a popular choice with tourists abroad.

In closing, I thank everyone on all sides of the House for their contributions, in particular my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford. She has not just led on the Bill but has had a very busy morning contributing to every single debate, representing her constituents extremely well indeed.

Animals (Low Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill

Trudy Harrison Excerpts

3rd reading
Friday 17th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Trudy Harrison)]

I know how important the Bill is to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, so I am delighted to see you in the Chair.

Today is a tremendous day for animals worldwide. We have been collegiate in this place; I very much appreciate the Opposition’s willingness to work with other Members and me on today’s Bills. We have been incredibly passionate about them. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson), who has put so much hard work and diligence into her Bill.

Let me put on record my thanks to the Members who have contributed to today’s debate: my hon. Friends the Members for Wolverhampton North East (Jane Stevenson), for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell), for South Ribble (Katherine Fletcher)—she offered her considerable experience—for Southend West (Anna Firth) and for Clwyd South (Simon Baynes). I was grateful to hear the considerations of the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Leeds North West (Alex Sobel), and I will endeavour to look at them in more detail and work with the RSPCA, as he suggests.

Currently, the domestic advertising and sale of animal activities overseas is not subject to specific legislation in this country—that is exactly what the Bill will do. As my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford eloquently set out, there is little else to say. Domestic travel agents can advertise and sell any overseas animal activities, no matter the relevant animal welfare standards. We have heard first-hand accounts from Members of just how horrific the conditions can be. In low-welfare establishments, cruel training methods are often used to force animals into submission. That allows tourists to get up close and personal with the animals in the form of riding, bathing or taking selfies, to name just a few examples.

Let me emphasise the Government’s commitment to improving animal welfare standards across the globe. The introduction of domestic advertising and sales bans on low-welfare activities abroad would allow us to continue to lead by example on how animals should be treated in tourist attractions across the world. I hope that by passing the Bill we will emphasise that we should not exploit animals for human entertainment, and show exactly why the UK is a world leader in animal welfare.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford set out, in the 2021 action plan for animal welfare, the Government committed to a number of animal welfare reforms. Several Acts have been passed to address the commitments made in 2021, and more Bills are proceeding through Parliament. The legislation already been passed includes the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act 2022 and the Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022. Just this morning, thanks to the diligence of my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith), his Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill was passed. That is tremendous progress.

The framework of this Bill will enable secondary legislation to be introduced to ban the domestic advertising and sale of specific low-welfare activities abroad. Let me emphasise that any ban on the domestic advertising and sale of low-welfare activities would capture the specific species and activity, wherever in the world that took place. For example, a ban on low-welfare Asian elephant activities would relate to unacceptable practices involving Asian elephants as a species anywhere in the world—not solely elephants that live in Asia.

Given the short time available, I want to put on record my thanks to campaigners from Save The Asian Elephants, who are in the Gallery, as well many other organisations globally. I also thank my officials, who work so hard, particularly across the animal welfare spectrum, including on the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill this morning and this Bill. Their diligence and professionalism, going the extra mile day after day, is much appreciated by me, by the entire ministerial team at DEFRA and, I think, by Members across this House. Without that hard work, we would not be in this position today.

In conclusion, I thank everyone for their contributions to this debate, especially my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford. I reiterate this Government’s support for the Bill and wish it well as it progresses.