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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the potential merits of banning the sale and distribution of live crabs and lobsters by online retailers.

We are considering carefully the implications of recognising in law the sentience of decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs. The Government currently has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a ban on the sale of live crabs and lobsters online.