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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if the Government will ban the (a) trade or (b) keeping of primates as pets.

Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is already against the law to keep primates in the same sort of environment you would keep a domesticated pet animal. In addition, the statutory Code of Practice for the Welfare of Privately Kept Non-human Primates provides keepers with advice on how to meet the welfare needs of their animals, as required under the 2006 Act.

Defra is working closely with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group to apply minimum standards to online pet advertising on five of the main websites. The standards include a requirement to remove any adverts for primates.

In the meantime, if anyone has any concerns about the welfare of a particular primate they should report it to the relevant local authority who have powers to investigate such matters, or to the RSPCA who can also investigate.