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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a presumption of transparency in favour of routinely publishing farmed animal welfare inspection reports across all species, including terrestrial farmed animals.

The Government understands the importance of transparency in relation to the welfare of farmed animals. Multi Annual National Control Plan (MANCP) reports include national data on the number of farm inspections completed by APHA, the welfare scores from those inspections and any subsequent enforcement action are reported at a national level. From 2026 Local Authority inspections will also be included in this report. The government considers that this provides sufficient overview of animal welfare enforcement data.