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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate his Department has made of the proportion of sows in the UK kept in farrowing crates in each of the last five years.

Defra does not hold official data, however, for the last five years estimates have consistently maintained that 60% of the UK breeding herd were kept indoors with the vast majority of sows using farrowing crates to give birth. The remaining 40% farrow freely on outdoor units with no option for confinement.

Recent industry estimates suggest that the number of sows kept indoors has declined to 50%. Of these, around 8% of the British indoor pig herd were reported to be flexibly farrowed where the sow can be confined on a temporary basis and for a limited period.