Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of placing a ban on the import of lamb produced on farms that carry out mulesing without pain relief.

The Government is firmly committed to upholding our animal welfare standards and to promoting robust standards internationally.

The independent Trade and Agriculture Commission considered, in the context of its report on the UK-Australia FTA, the issue of imports to the UK of lamb that has been subject to mulesing without pain relief. The Commission concluded that lambs reared for meat are not mulesed and the likelihood of mutton from mulesed sheep being imported into the UK is negligible.