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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps has he taken to improve the (a) health and (b) welfare of farmed animals.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.

The Government shares the public’s high regard for animal health and welfare, having committed to working with producers and the food sector to raise standards across the board. We are delivering a series of ambitious reforms that will continue our collective drive to improve standards in farm animal health and welfare through, for example, delivery of the Action Plan for Animal Welfare.

As part of our plans for future farming, this autumn will see the launch of Annual Health and Welfare Review, the first step on the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway, which will fund vet visits to undertake a health and welfare review for farms across England. In 2023 we will introduce Animal Health and Welfare Grants, followed by Endemic Disease Eradication and Control Programmes and a Payment-by-Results trial. Beyond this financial assistance, the Pathway also aims to stimulate market demand for higher welfare products by increasing transparency and strengthening the regulatory baseline.

We also remain committed to delivering the Government’s bovine TB (bTB) eradication strategy. Developing a deployable cattle bTB vaccine with the objective of introduction by 2025 is one of the Government’s top priorities. A deployable cattle bTB vaccine is expected to be a game-changer in terms of providing a strong additional tool to help eradicate bTB. Field trials began in 2021.

We have a strong track record in raising the bar for welfare standards — the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 now provides legal recognition that animals are sentient beings and introduced an Animal Sentience Committee as a new scrutiny mechanism requiring Ministers to explain how policy decisions have taken into account their impact on animals.