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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve enforcement of (a) paragraph 15 on environmental enrichment for pigs of Schedule 8 to the Aftercare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007 and (b) paragraph 5 on tail docking of pigs of Schedule 3 to the Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) Regulations 2007.

Defra’s Code of Recommendations for pigs, which all pig-keepers must be familiar with, provides guidance on how to comply with the legal requirements in relation to environmental enrichment and routine tail-docking. When carrying out an inspection of a pig unit, the Animal Health and Plant Health Agency evaluate the provision of enrichment material and whether pigs are routinely tail-docked without a justifiable reason and will apply breaches where non-compliances are found.

There are health and welfare reasons for continuing to tail-dock in certain circumstances, but we and the pig industry recognise a need to improve the quality of enrichment materials available for all pigs and increase opportunities to stop tail-docking.

Defra contributed to a European Commission research project by Bristol University which informed the EU Commission’s recently published guidance on tail docking and enrichment materials. We are working with the industry to implement these recommendations on tail docking and enrichment which were published earlier this year.