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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department is collecting data on the number of flexible crates being installed by pig farmers in England; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of that voluntary transition on the outcomes of the planned consultation on farrowing crate use.

No such data is being collected on the number of flexible crates being installed. As stated in the Animal Welfare Strategy, the Government wants to work with industry so that it ends the use of pig farrowing crates. A consultation on the transition to alternative farrowing systems will include an impact assessment and will take place in due course.