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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to open to public consultation the draft Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations 2018.

Defra consulted on proposals to review the existing animal activities licensing regime in 2015-16. In July 2016 we published a summary of responses, and in February 2017 we published our Next Steps document which outlined our proposals following the consultation responses. Since then we have been working with representatives of key stakeholders to develop the new regulations. The draft regulations will now be laid in early 2018.