Draft Animal Welfare and Invasive Non-native Species (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations

Victoria Prentis Excerpts

Wednesday 9th December 2020 General Committees

[The Chair]

Before we begin, I remind Members to observe social distancing and to sit only in the places clearly marked. Hansard colleagues would be grateful if Members could send their speaking notes to [e-mail].

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

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Animal Welfare and Invasive Non-native Species (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Cummins. This statutory instrument amends earlier EU exit regulations in three areas: animal welfare, leghold traps and pelt imports, and invasive non-native species. The amendments ensure that retained EU law continues to remain effective and operable at the end of the transition period and in accordance with the Northern Ireland protocol.

The SI amends the regulations relating to the welfare of animals during transport, at control posts and at slaughter, to ensure that they remain operable in accordance with the Northern Ireland protocol. It will end recognition in Great Britain of transporter authorisations, driver and attendant certificates of competence, vehicle approvals and journey logs that are issued by an EU member state. From the end of the transition period, EU transporters will have to apply to a competent authority for those documents in order to be able to continue to transport animals in and through GB. That will allow for better enforcement, create a level playing field and ensure that GB transporters are not commercially disadvantaged, because the EU is applying similar rules. Transport documents issued in Northern Ireland will continue to be acceptable for use in Great Britain.

Additionally, the SI ensures that we meet obligations under the UK-Ireland common travel area by making provision for training that is carried out in the Republic of Ireland to be recognised as equivalent to that in GB for the purpose of giving a driver or attendant certificate of competence in GB. It makes amendments to regulations protecting animals at slaughter and will ensure that slaughterers’ certificates of competence issued in any part of the UK will continue to be recognised across GB.

Without the SI, EU transporters could continue to move animals into and through the UK, but we would lack the ability to take enforcement action if they breached the rules on the welfare of animals in transport. Following an animal welfare incident, the ability to suspend or revoke a certificate of competence or a transporter authorisation until that transporter has been retrained is an important enforcement mechanism. Live animal movements should be carefully planned, based on predicted journey times. Long journeys must be approved by the competent authority, as any delay could result in significant welfare issues. The SI will ensure that from the start of the year, EU transporters will need to apply to the GB competent authority to gain approval for their planned journeys.

The existing exit instruments amend the retained EU leghold trap regulation. The regulations that prohibit the use of leghold traps and the import of pelts and manufactured goods from certain wild animal species make the retained legislation compatible with the Northern Ireland protocol, and they ensure that the import of pelts and pelt products from the EU will be treated in the same way as imports from any other third country. The regulations will continue to prohibit the use of leghold traps in Great Britain and to ensure that only pelts sourced from captive-bred animals, or pelts from approved countries that abide by humane trapping standards, are imported. They will maintain the high standards and controls that are currently in place for pelt imports.

On invasive non-native species, the SI makes technical amendments to ensure the proper working of retained EU law and the management of the Northern Ireland protocol. The changes make provision for the devolved Administrations to be consulted properly about species listing and decisions on reserved matters. That is particularly important in relation to grey squirrels in Scotland, for example, where they have particularly strong views as they are working hard to promote red squirrels. The changes also allow traders in Northern Ireland to continue to use established rules on the sale of commercial stocks after a species has been listed.

The regulations ensure that specimens seized at the UK border do not have to be transported to England or Wales: border officials in Northern Ireland and Scotland, for example, may send seized animals to local facilities instead of having to ship them to England or Wales. They also make a minor change relating to civil sanctions to bring clarity on the procedure and appeal rights for non-compliance. Furthermore, the changes allow for temporary emergency restrictions on previously unlisted species to be introduced and enforced promptly where that is necessary.

The draft regulations will ensure that the Northern Ireland protocol is upheld and that, in line with Government policy, we can enhance and continue to enforce our high animal welfare standards and protect the UK’s biosecurity at the end of the transition period. I commend them to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[Victoria Prentis]

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Gentleman. I will do my best to answer the many questions he raised. On the impact assessment on live animal exports, we have not done a formal public consultation, but we have engaged directly with industry representatives on the issue. The SI relates to the maintenance of an existing regulation. We would not anticipate an enormous amount of impact as a result. There are, as the hon. Gentleman said, limited impacts on European business, but there is no effect on GB public services, for example. The EU has made it quite clear that the provision is reciprocal. We are quite clear that we have extra staff in APHA to process any new EU business applications, so we feel that we have done what is necessary there.

On the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster’s statement, I was pleased to be in the Chamber and hear what he had to say. He announced a really useful grace period for supermarkets and those in their supply chains. We have not yet got all the details of what the Joint Committee has agreed, but I look forward to engaging with them fully in the coming days as they become available. It is a welcome statement and I am pleased that we came to that level of agreement.

On live animal exports, I heard what the Member had to say on the consultation. It is an eight-week consultation and I look forward to the hon. Gentleman joining in with it. We will also be consulting on transport for animals more generally, for example on maximum journey times, the amount of space available for animals while they are being transported, stricter temperature controls and the specific rules for sea transport. It is important that we view this as about not just live animal exports, but the whole conglomeration of issues about animals being moved. On that note, on small and local abattoirs, I noticed that the all-party parliamentary group for animal welfare has produced a useful report on the role of the small abattoir, which is something that I personally have long been interested in, and indeed the role of the mobile slaughterer.

[Daniel Zeichner]

I, too, was very impressed by that report. Going back to those journey times, there is genuine puzzlement—it was not simply a criticism—as to why those long times have been proposed. It might help some of the people responding to understand the thinking behind that.

[Victoria Prentis]

I will not go into the ins and outs of the consultation, but I encourage those responding to be forthright and frank and to make their views clearly felt, and the evidence behind them. Of course, the Government acknowledge the important role of small abattoirs. The decline in their numbers is due to a combination of factors including, for example, consolidation in the retail sector and the drive for greater efficiency, which has led to consolidation in a small number of large abattoirs. Officials in DEFRA and the Food Standards Agency are working with the Sustainable Food Trust to understand why that has happened and to see whether steps can be taken to reduce regulatory burdens, which might help small abattoirs to survive.

I come to the INNS part of this SI, on non-native species. The policy change, which is not related to EU exit, relates to a sensible provision that means that enforcement officers in Scotland and Northern Ireland who seize a cargo of live animals that should not be there will not have to transport them a long distance to England or Wales to be processed. This is not something that will be often used, we very much hope, but it is a completely sensible and practical provision to reduce the stress and burden on those live animals. That is why we feel an impact assessment is not necessary. The whole point is to improve animal welfare and prevent the associated costs and bureaucracy caused by sending the animals on a long journey to where they have to go at the moment to be correctly processed—that is the purpose of that.

I reiterate that these regulations will not amend any current animal welfare standards. They make operability changes to ensure that existing EU law works appropriately at the end of the transition period. With that in mind, I commend them to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.