Angela Richardson (Guildford) (Con) I beg to move, That the Bill be
now read a Second time. This Bill has been years in the making. The
principles behind the Bill have incredibly strong and widespread
public support, as demonstrated by a recent survey commissioned by
Save the Asian Elephants, including the support of over 80% of my
constituents in Guildford. It has also been welcomed by other
animal welfare organisations, including the Royal Society for the
Prevention of...Request free trial
(Guildford) (Con)
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
This Bill has been years in the making. The principles behind the
Bill have incredibly strong and widespread public support, as
demonstrated by a recent survey commissioned by Save the Asian
Elephants, including the support of over 80% of my constituents
in Guildford. It has also been welcomed by other animal welfare
organisations, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals and World Animal Protection.
The Bill rightly has significant cross-party support and builds
on this Conservative Government’s excellent track record on
animal welfare. While we have had so many significant pieces of
legislation brought forward to improve animal welfare in the time
I have been a Member of Parliament, it is vital that we do not
rest on our laurels. There is still a huge amount of work to be
done in animal welfare domestically and internationally.
The Government’s action plan states:
“In line with setting a global example on animal welfare, we also
want to make sure that businesses do not benefit from selling
attractions, activities or experiences to tourists involving the
unacceptable treatment of animals. For example, animals such as
Asian elephants may be subjected to cruel and brutal training
practices to ensure their obedience. We will legislate to ban the
advertising and offering for sale here of specific, unacceptable
practices abroad. Our intention is that this will steer tourists
towards visiting attractions that involve animals being cared for
and treated properly.”
Today, working closely with Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs officials and Government Ministers, I am delighted
to present the Bill. I look forward to hearing from the Minister
the Government’s continued support for this legislation on Second
Reading and as it progresses through each stage.
Why do we need this legislation? World Animal Protection UK
kindly wrote to me earlier this month with “The Real Responsible
Traveller” report, based on independent research carried out by
the University of Surrey in my Guildford constituency. The report
presented an assessment of nine of the world’s leading travel
attraction experience companies and tour operators on their
commitment to wildlife-friendly tourism. Although two big-name
companies have worked with World Animal Protection to proactively
remove captive wildlife entertainment from their businesses, five
of the most influential travel companies in the UK continue to
sell harmful, exploitative wildlife experiences, such as swimming
with dolphins, wildlife shows, big cat petting and selfies,
animal rides and bathing.
Some of the methods used to train these highly intelligent
animals to perform include: depriving dolphins of food so they
will perform; confining dolphins to tanks 200,000 times smaller
than their natural home range—the tanks are nearly always
featureless, with little mental stimulation—separating elephant
calves from their mothers at a young age, restraining them with
only minimal movement and keeping them in isolation to break
them; and subjecting elephants to violent training regimes, such
as repeated beatings with hooks and sticks, as well as reducing
their natural roaming range, which varies from between 30 and 600
sq km in the wild. I encourage anyone watching the debate today
to follow the social media accounts of Save the Asian Elephants.
One cannot fail to be moved by the plight of these graceful
animals being subjected to barbaric treatment.
However, it is sadly not just animals that are at risk. I was
briefly able to meet and chat to Helen Costigan when Save the
Asian Elephants CEO Duncan McNair, other parliamentarians and I
presented a petition to Downing Street last week. Helen suffered
the devastating loss of her 20-year-old sister, Andrea, on a
visit to Thailand in 2000, when an elephant trained by the
methods I have outlined charged. Helen said that they did not
understand the dangers or the abuse that elephants face. She
rightly pointed out that for a normal person going on holiday,
asking whether things are ethical is not at the forefront of
their mind. She has worked incredibly hard over the intervening
years to make sure that others do not have to experience her
grief and loss.
It is perhaps not for this Bill today, but it is important to
think about social media influencers, who use their accounts to
promote these sorts of activities. They may not be one of the
companies we are targeting today, but they often receive money,
payment and an endorsement for promoting these activities. It is
perhaps not for this legislation, but we need to look at how we
can effectively target the online influencers in this space as
well.
I was pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley () was able to bring this subject
before the House last week in an Adjournment debate on animal
welfare in overseas tourism. He was able to go into significant
detail about the impact of low animal welfare on several species,
and I encourage right hon. and hon. Members to read his
contribution. The other impact that he described was the impact
on humans: the risk from Asian elephants, cruelly trained—beyond
crushed organs, broken limbs and serious head injuries—of the
transmission of deadly tuberculosis via their large volume of
exhalation. He also referred to concerns about the potential
transmission of other airborne pathogens. We have only to look at
the past few years, during which we have experienced a virus with
zoonotic origins, to know that we need to be careful about this
sort of activity as well.
What, then, does the Bill seek to do? Clauses 1 and 2 set up a
framework of offences involving the sale and advertising of
low-welfare animal activities abroad. Clause 3 outlines
penalties, prosecutions and liabilities for the offence or
offences, including disapplying section 127 of the Magistrates’
Courts Act 1980 and article 19 of the Magistrates’ Courts
(Northern Ireland) Order 1981. This means that complex cases for
prosecution can exceed the usual six-month time limit. Clause 4
provides relevant enforcement powers, and clause 5 establishes
procedures for making regulations in the UK Parliament and the
Northern Ireland legislature.
My understanding from discussions with officials is that
following Royal Assent, the Department for Environment, Food and
Rural Affairs will be able to consider consulting on the first
application of the new powers in the Bill. There will be many,
along with me, who look forward to the first of a series of
regulations being put in place through statutory instruments
following the successful completion of the Bill’s passage.
Clause 7 deals with the territorial extent of the Bill. I respect
the power of the devolved Administrations to choose which pieces
of UK Government legislation they wish to consent to, but I would
gently point to the UK-wide support for this Bill and the
vigorous campaigning efforts of organisations such as Save The
Asian Elephants. I am sure that my colleagues in Scotland and
Wales can expect to hear from its chief executive, Duncan McNair,
without delay—especially as, I am delighted to say, he is in the
Public Gallery today watching the progress of the Bill very
carefully.
Time does not permit me to speak any longer, but I look forward
to hearing from other Members who will be speaking about this
important Bill.
1.07pm
(Plymouth, Sutton and
Devonport) (Lab/Co-op)
I thank the hon. Member for Guildford () for introducing the
Bill, and for speaking so passionately. There is cross-party
concern in this place about the treatment of animals abroad, and
the Bill constitutes an important first step in restricting the
advertising and offering for sale of tourist products that could
involve animals. This is one part of a larger process.
I, too, feel passionate about this issue, as a result of not only
my time on the Front Bench as a member of the shadow environment
team, but my time working for the Association of British Travel
Agents, and my previous work with tourism companies such as
Thomas Cook. Much good work has been done by the industry on a
voluntary basis, but it is clear that far too many people still
do not regard the sale of tourism elements involving animals as
something awful, which in my view it is, and we therefore need to
ensure that this legislation is passed and properly
implemented.
The hon. Member for Guildford mentioned dolphins. In the context
of the use of animals in tourism products, “dolphin selfies” are
quite common. This practice causes incredible stress to the
animals. We know that dolphins and other sea creatures are
sentient and feel pain, and the treatment involved in getting a
dolphin to swim next to people and perform when they take their
selfies—and to do that time and again for everyone in the queue
on that day, let alone every other day—is horrendous.
It is important that we take steps to reduce the sale of these
tourism attractions, but we must also take steps to work with
destinations to remove them in the first place, or to improve the
animal welfare considerations involved. This Bill alone will not
stop the sale of low-welfare animal tourism products; it will
stop the advertising, but it will still enable tourists to buy
those elements independently at their destinations. In the United
Kingdom, about a third of our holidays are bought as package
holidays, where the purchaser buys from one provider; it might
have lots of elements within it, but it is one provider. If that
purchaser is on a TUI holiday, for instance, and goes to a TUI
resort, and someone comes into that TUI resort to sell an animal
attraction, there is a fair question to the holiday provider
about how much control they have over their destination bookings
and the question of whether to allow an independent trader in to
sell a product. That is for holidays covered by package travel
regulations; if someone is travelling independently and there is
no regulatory oversight over that tourism product, that is a
different matter—it is more complicated, although it still needs
to be dealt with.
However, I encourage the hon. Member for Guildford to continue
her campaign to look at what can be done when people are
travelling under a UK-regulated package arrangement or linked
arrangement, working with the holiday companies to ensure that
those situations do not happen. We want all our animals around
the world to enjoy not only freedom wherever possible, but a
quality of life and a life well lived. Far too many animals
involved with tourism do not enjoy a life well lived; in fact,
they enjoy very little of their life, with much cruelty and much
pain involved. This Bill is incredibly popular in Plymouth, as it
is in the hon. Member’s constituency, and I encourage her to keep
going in relation to this issue. I would like the Minister to
look again at where the Animals Abroad Bill has got to, because
it does seem to be lost—the Government have misplaced it. That
Bill would not only take good steps to protect animals abroad,
but would address important issues—on fur and the sale of foie
gras, for instance—that still need to be addressed.
I encourage the hon. Member for Guildford to push on her with her
Bill. In particular, I want to highlight her remarks about the
use of influencers, because there is a question about the
implementation of the powers in the Bill: namely, the extent to
which digital content provided by holiday companies that, for
instance, shows an elephant ride would be part of advertising, as
it creates the impression in the purchaser’s mind that that is
something that they can do in that destination, even if that
content is not explicitly part of a product. There are elements
that I would like the Government to look at, and I know they can
work with industry to deliver those elements, because there is a
real will in the UK tourism industry, as well as among
holidaymakers, to ensure that holidays are ethical, decent and
environmentally sustainable, and do not put any animals at
risk.
1.11pm
(Blackpool South) (Con)
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford () for bringing this Bill
before the House. Animal welfare, whether at home or abroad, is
an important issue to my constituents, and I often receive emails
supporting greater protection for animals. I am proud of how far
we have come in this country, and I commend the current
Government for the work they have done to stop the needless
suffering of animals. Since 2010, it is quite a record: a ban on
the use of conventional battery cages for laying hens; mandatory
CCTV in slaughterhouses across England; a ban on the use of wild
animals in circuses; the strongest ivory ban in the world;
mandatory microchipping of dogs; and the modernisation of the
licensing system for dog breeding and pet sales.
In 2021 we met our manifesto commitment when the Animal Welfare
(Sentencing) Act came into force, raising the maximum sentence
for animal cruelty from six months to five years. Its sister Act,
the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, which is passing through
its stages in this House, will also introduce some of the world’s
strongest protections for pets, livestock and kept wild animals.
Those include a ban on keeping primates as pets and on exporting
live animals for slaughter and fattening. That Bill also
addresses puppy smuggling by reducing the number of pets that can
travel under pet travel rules, and I look forward to supporting
it as it continues its parliamentary journey.
(Bristol East) (Lab)
I thank the hon. Member for giving way, and I am glad that he is
supporting the Bill. He has outlined some good measures, but does
he share my frustration that it has taken an awfully long time to
get them through? They are usually pretty simple Bills for which
there is cross-party agreement; the Wild Animals in Circuses Act
2019 took forever to get through the House—although that was
probably before the hon. Member’s time. Does he share my
frustration, and hope that we can get more measures like this one
through the House more quickly in future?
I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. She certainly shares
my passion for improving animal welfare, and I am sure that the
Government business managers have heard her plea for Government
time to take forward the additional measures she alludes to.
Clearly, this is an area of policy in which the UK has progressed
rapidly and has quickly become a world leader, reflecting the
deep respect for animals that the people of this country
have.
As recently as the 1980s, exotic animals were used in circus
performances in my constituency, which would be unthinkable
today.
The Bill rightly recognises the unintentional and often
unforeseen suffering that tourist activities can inflict on
animals. That is particularly true when animals are taken from
their natural habitats and trained, often cruelly, to act as part
of a show or to be docile when being petted or fed. I am sure
that many tourists who visit such shows are unaware of the impact
on the animals’ health and of the conditions in which the animals
are usually kept.
In conclusion, while I am broadly opposed ideologically to
restrictions on companies to advertise, I hope the Bill will mean
companies with the leverage to encourage higher standards in
regulations in attractions abroad will use that leverage. Rather
than stopping people seeing exotic and interesting animals in
other places, I hope the Bill will allow them to do so in a way
that protects those animals from harm and exploitation.
1.16pm
(Christchurch) (Con)
This is a potentially useful Bill, but my concern is that it does
not specify exactly what is going to be done. In introducing the
Bill, my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford () referred repeatedly to
the plight of Asian elephants. When the Government introduced
their action plan for animal welfare in May 2021, they said:
“We will legislate to ban the advertising and offering for sale
here of specific, unacceptable practices abroad.”
With the exception of the reference to Asian elephants, we do not
know what those “specific, unacceptable practices abroad” are,
the advertising of which will be banned under the Bill. There
should be a lot more specificity on the face of the Bill.
At the moment, the Bill could cover any matter that is already
illegal under UK legislation or legislation in the devolved
Administrations. For example, on the basis of its current
wording, it could outlaw the advertising or promotion of hunting
wild animals abroad, essentially trying to give extraterritorial
application to our hunting legislation. If that is the intention
of the Bill, then that should be spelled out openly, instead of
being hidden away in the Bill’s regulation-making powers.
My main point concerns an omission. The Bill is based on the
Government’s commitment to improving animal welfare—who could be
against that? However, there remains a gap in that programme: the
prevalence of the use of non-stun slaughter for animals in this
country. I declare an interest as my daughter is a vet. The
British Veterinary Association and the Conservative Animal
Welfare Foundation, of which I think you are a patron, Mr Deputy
Speaker, are at the forefront of trying to ensure that the
non-stun method of slaughtering livestock is removed, or
certainly mitigated, so that it is done only when there is strict
evidence that it is necessary for religious purposes.
Mr Deputy Speaker ( )
Order. Whatever private sympathies I may have with what the hon.
Gentleman says, he has been in the House almost as long as I
have, which is long enough to know that he has to talk about what
is in the Bill and not what is not in it. He is stretching a
point, if I may say so.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we are both looking forward to celebrating, in
June, the 40th anniversary of our first being elected to this
House. Unlike me, you have been here continuously since then.
Obviously, those missing years have impacted on my failure to
follow the procedures today.
On Second Reading, one is entitled to look at things that are not
included in the Bill. What I seek to find out from my hon. Friend
the Member for Guildford is how this Bill will apply to what we
know is already going on within our own country, where the
non-stunned slaughter of animals can take place. It does not take
place in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland, but it does take
place in England. Could this Bill create a situation where we
would be able to outlaw the advertising of hunting trips abroad
but we would not be able to take action if in Northern Ireland or
Wales an attempt was made to ensure that the same rules for the
slaughter of animals through not being stunned in advance were
applied?
There is a potentially a big gap in this Bill and I hope that for
that reason when it gets into Committee we will have a chance to
look at these issues in more detail. I hope we will be able to
find out a bit more about why the Government have said that they
were going to act in relation to the non-stunned animals being
slaughtered, and the fact that a large proportion of all halal
meat is actually already pre-stunned but a lot of the non-stunned
meat is going to places that are not part of the religious
community. I look forward to being able to discuss those issues
in Committee or on Report if this Bill gets its Second Reading,
as I hope it does.
1.21pm
(Halifax) (Lab)
Like other Members, let me start by commending the hon. Member
for Guildford () for having so
successfully navigated this important legislation to the Chamber
today. I am pleased to support any and all measures to protect
animals from abuse, and am thankful to her for giving us that
opportunity today and for the comprehensive way in which she has
made the case already.
Wild animal selfies, swimming with dolphins and riding elephants
all feed into the collective human desire to experience new
things and be close to animals. However, the wildlife tourism
industry is responsible for the exploitation of hundreds of
thousands of animals each year. Dolphins are forced to live in
incredibly small tanks, as the hon. Lady outlined. Big cats can
be drugged and declawed, and elephants are beaten and brutalised.
Of course, it is easy to think of this as a problem far removed
from the UK—something that is happening in another part of the
world and a problem that is not ours to solve—but by advertising,
promoting and selling these experiences, usually to unknowing
consumers, UK-based travel companies are complicit in the
cruelty.
There are many documented examples of the cruelty endured by
animals used in the tourist trade. One of the most shocking
instances came in 2016, when it was reported that police found 40
dead tiger cubs in a freezer during a raid at Thailand’s Tiger
temple. Irresponsible breeding and poor conditions meant that the
tigers had a much lower chance of living long, healthy lives than
their wild counterparts. Each day at the Tiger temple, hundreds
of tourists paid in excess of £40 to enter the park and pose with
a tiger cub. In a country where the average wage is about £12 per
day, we can see how animal tourism is big business. I am thankful
that this attraction is no longer open to the public, but it is
concerning that there are still about 2,000 captive tigers in
Thailand, and that so- called “experiences” continue to be
advertised and sold here in the UK That is just one country and
one example, so I hope that this Bill will very much start to
eradicate such practices.
Highly endangered baby and adult Asian elephants are beaten,
stabbed and brutalised systematically across south-east Asia to
“break the spirits” for easy use in tourism, yet these
experiences are promoted by more than 1,250 UK based travel
companies. Asian elephant numbers have collapsed and the species
is nearing extinction, but appealing advertisements, often from
well-known and influential companies, hide the cruelty from
tourists who do not realise the enormous suffering endured by the
animals involved. I know that the British public feel as strongly
as we do. The fact that more than 1 million people signed a
petition to urge the Government to protect the Asian elephant
from the often daily cruelty they face at the hands of the
tourist trade shows that there is most definitely an appetite for
the measures before us.
Wildlife tourism is a diverse industry and it is important to
note that there are some responsible operators and ethical
activities available. I sincerely hope that today ushers in a new
era of kinder, more responsible wildlife tourism where
conservation underpins any such activities.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton and
Devonport () who spoke so passionately
with his experience of years working in the tourism sector. He
raised some good points about further measures that could be
considered where holiday providers might be facilitating
experiences once holidaymakers are in-country. That is a very
important point, which, I am sure, the Minister will be taking
further with her colleagues in Government.
We welcome the fact that the Bill makes it clear what constitutes
the advertising and sale of low-welfare animal activities and
creates offences to that effect with a corresponding enforcement
regime. As a nation of animal lovers, it is only right that
Britain should lead the way on this, so, once again, I
congratulate the hon. Member for Guildford and wish her all the
very best of luck with the remainder of the passage of this
Bill.
1.26pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs ()
I, like other right hon. and hon. Members in this House, wish to
pay tribute to, and thank immensely, my hon. Friend the Member
for Guildford () for all her hard work
on this Bill. I also thank my officials across the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for supporting her. Perhaps I
can give her some comfort: I introduced, as a private member’s
Bill, the Wild Animals in Circuses Bill. In 2019, with the
support of Government, that Bill received its Royal Assent. These
private Members’ Bills and sitting Fridays really make a
tremendous difference.
My hon. Friend set out, somewhat graphically, exactly why we in
DEFRA are supporting this important Bill. If anyone is in any
doubt about this, then they should review the work of Save the
Asian Elephants. I understand why people, especially parents,
would want their children to have some experience of a wild
animal—I myself am a mum to four girls. However, the clue is in
the description: it is important that the experience is about
observing, not forcing the changed behaviour of a wild animal to
enable our up-close and wholly unnatural experience.
The hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport () talked about dolphins.
Although we are looking, with this Bill, to develop primary
legislation, secondary legislation will give us the opportunity
to be specific about the species, and I will go into further
detail on that later in my speech. My hon. Friend the Member for
Blackpool South () made reference to the Wild
Animals in Circuses Act 2019. I will take up his invitation to
visit the zoo that does so much good work in Blackpool, and thank
him for supporting the Bill.
We see the Bill as an important contribution to our ambitious
animal welfare reforms that we have been making since this
Government came to power. I manage 40 workstreams on our animal
welfare action plan. All are making considerable progress, but
there is no provision within the law to regulate the advertising
and sale of animal activities abroad. That means that
unacceptably low welfare activities can currently be advertised
to tourists by domestic travel agents.
The hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport and I share a
common history, because I, too, worked as a travel agent. I know
that it is difficult to understand whether an activity, which
seems incredibly desirable, offering as it does a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, is high or low animal
welfare.
The Bill will ensure clarity. Animals used in the tourist trade
are often subjected to brutal and cruel treatment to ensure their
compliance. Our concerns relate not just to the activities
themselves, but to the severe training methods that are used to
train and sometimes force the animals to behave in the desired
way. Any change we can make here in the United Kingdom to raise
animal welfare standards across the globe is a positive.
In response to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for
Guildford about influencers, with the knowledge that we now have
about animal welfare, the unacceptable treatment of animals for
human entertainment cannot be condoned and such influencers
absolutely depend on their followers. I am sure that the work
that has been done to date, and the fact that we are gathered in
the Chamber to speak about the need for wild animals to have high
animal welfare, will send a strong message.
The Government take the welfare of all animals seriously and are
committed to raising standards of animal welfare both at home and
abroad. Introducing domestic advertising bans sends a strong
signal from the Government that the only acceptable tourist
attractions are ones where the animals do not suffer and that
contributes to the UK’s position as a world leader on animal
welfare. To date, the Government have carried out ambitious
reforms that we committed to in the 2021 action plan for animal
welfare. They include the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021,
the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, the Animals (Penalty
Notices) Act 2022 and the Glue Traps (Offences) Act 2022. We are
also pleased to support the private Members’ Bills on shark fins
and trophy hunting.
More specifically on low-welfare animal activities, the
Government’s action plan for animal welfare stated:
“In line with setting a global example on animal welfare…We will
legislate to ban the advertising and offering for sale here of
specific, unacceptable practices abroad.”
Alongside Government support for the Bill, there is widespread
public support for such measures. World Animal Protection and
Oxford University have estimated that up to 550,000 wild animals
are exploited in the tourism industry across the globe.
The Minister is making a good speech about the importance of the
Bill. May I just take her back to the advertising of low-welfare
animal products abroad? When the Bill goes to Committee, will she
and her officials work with the hon. Member for Guildford () to see whether the
provision of a digital click through would be captured by the
advertising restriction, or, as in some cases in travel law,
would it sit outside that? We do not want someone buying a
holiday online to have adverts or links that can be clicked to
take them to a site outside the UK, where they could buy such
activities in the same purchasing period as buying their holiday.
Will she ensure that that can be captured, because it could be a
workaround that the companies that wish to continue selling the
products exploit?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. I will take the
Bill through its legislative stages. I reassure him that I
understand that that would be beneficial and that I will meet him
and look into that with my officials before we go to
Committee.
It is clear that the British public do not accept low animal
welfare standards. The recent poll conducted by World Animal
Protection revealed that 81% of UK respondents agreed that
countries should stop the commercial exploitation of wild
animals. In the same poll, 85% of respondents believed that wild
animals had the right to a wild life.
Does the Minister think that the provisions in the Bill could
cover, for example, people who go whale watching in South
Africa?
To give a very brief answer to a very brief question, my first
instinct is, absolutely not because people watch whales in their
natural environment behaving in a natural way. The problem comes
when we force wild animals to behave unnaturally in captive
environments for our benefit up close and personal. As far as I
understand it, that is not what my hon. Friend was referring
to.
There is no specific reference to Asian elephants in the Bill,
but we anticipate they will be covered under the Bill. Alongside
the general support for the measures in the Bill, there is
particularly strong support for Government intervention in
relation to low-welfare activities involving Asian elephants.
Asian elephants often undergo brutal training to break them in
and make it safe for them to be in the vicinity of tourists.
Methods include being chained up for long periods without access
to food or water and being beaten with bullhooks to gain
compliance. Elephants are often forced into unnatural activities,
such as playing football, painting and tourist rides. As Members
will have heard last Tuesday in the Adjournment debate secured by
my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (), Asian elephant rides,
performances and experiences are often a popular choice with
tourists abroad.
In closing, I thank everyone on all sides of the House for their
contributions, in particular my hon. Friend the Member for
Guildford. She has not just led on the Bill but has had a very
busy morning contributing to every single debate, representing
her constituents extremely well indeed.
1.37pm
With the leave of the House, I would like to thank everybody who
has been in the Chamber today and participated on Second Reading.
There have been important contributions and clarifications
sought. The hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport
() brought to bear his industry
experience, which would be very useful in Committee, especially
on the important issue of click-through. We need to ensure we
capture everything and that there are no loopholes to be
exploited.
I was grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South
(), who went through the huge
amount of legislation the Government have introduced. This Bill
is about animal welfare abroad, but it is important to recognise
what the Government are doing on animal welfare domestically. My
hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch ( ) raised some important
points. The point of having these debates is to ask questions and
seek clarification, so we need to talk about the issues he
raised. I take some comfort from the Minister’s words that the
Bill will mean specific regulations on specific species and will
not capture a whole load of activities, including those my hon.
Friend mentioned, but it is good that he is thinking widely about
the implications of the Bill for animal species around the world
and for some activities that take place, including whale
watching.
Once again, I thank DEFRA officials for all the work they have
done. I know the Bill is so popular that places in Committee will
go very quickly. I suggest that hon. and right hon. Members who
want to get involved should get in touch with me.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill accordingly read a Second time; to stand committed to a
Public Bill Committee (Standing Order No. 63).
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