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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure that veterinarians are present at all live animal exports from the UK to provide an export certificate and ensure relevant standards of animal care are being adhered to.

The Government has no plans to propose changes to the legislative basis for pre-export inspections beyond those measures which are currently in place. These measures were reviewed and, where necessary, modified in 2012. Details of these operational changes were set out in the Written Ministerial Statement made by the then Minister of State for Defra, Mr David Heath on 4 March 2013 (Hansard, Column 53 WS).