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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make it his policy to publish a consultation on the keeping of caged animals.

The Government are committed to phasing out confinement systems and supporting the industry to do so, not least to underpin UK food security. However, as reiterated by the Minister for Farming, Fisheries and Food at the ‘End the Cage Age’ debate held in June, we do need to work carefully and sensitively with the pig and poultry sectors as any transition must be done with, rather than against, these industries.

This is an extremely challenging time for Britain’s farmers, with enormously increased input costs — of food, fuel and fertiliser — affecting almost all production systems to a greater or lesser extent, and of course for the general public who are faced with significant challenges around the cost of living.

So, any decisions by Government on this issue, including timing of consultations, must be carefully considered in light of these wider, and clearly highly important, priorities. We have a course of action in play and will progress with our plans to transition away from use of cages in farming systems as soon as the time is right.