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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the (a) 2012 ban on conventional cages on the finances of producers with enriched colony cage systems and (b) five year transition period on competition between UK and EU producers.

The Government has carried out an assessment of the proposal to ban the keeping of laying hens, pullets in enriched colony cages and, as part of the consultation on laying hen cage reform, is seeking views on that assessment. The consultation also seeks additional evidence on how the proposals will affect egg production costs and current levels of imports and exports.