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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, in what way the Animal Welfare Committee’s advice on breeding will inform the assessment of targets and timescales on a voluntary move away from fast-growing meat chicken breeds.

The Government will draw upon the wide-ranging advice within the Animal Welfare Committee’s recent report on livestock breeding in all upcoming work. The report did not however provide an in-depth assessment of the welfare status of fast-growing breeds of meat chickens.