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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the provisions of the Welfare of Animals (Transport) (England) Order 2006 forbidding the handling of chickens by their legs on farms and during transportation and loading are followed.

The Government is firmly committed to maintaining and improving animal welfare and wants to work closely with the farming sector to deliver high standards. Having reviewed the advice and recommendations in the Animal Welfare Committee’s Opinion on the welfare implications of different methods and systems for the catching, carrying, collecting and loading of poultry, the Government is considering next steps and will announce these in due course.