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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are considering banning the routine use on farms of antibiotics classified by the World Health Organisation as critically important for treating bacterial infections in people.

The legislation that controls veterinary medicines and medicated feed within the EU is currently under revision. To reflect the rising threat of antibiotic resistance the new proposed frameworks set out additional controls on antibiotics. This includes a ban on the routine preventative use of antibiotics, including those classified as critically important, something the UK supports.

Negotiations on the frameworks are expected to continue until late 2017. There are no plans to significantly revise or amend the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013 until the Commission’s work on the review of legislation has been completed.