My colleagues and I take the welfare of all animals very seriously and, as the highest ranked G7 nation on World Animal Protection's Animal Protection Index, the UK is a world leader on animal welfare. I welcome the action taken by the last Conservative Government to further improve animal welfare, such as banning the export of live animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs and horses for fattening or slaughter, with the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act 2024, and increasing the maximum prison sentence for animal cruelty from six months to five years with the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021. Pivotally, animal sentience was enshrined in law through the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, thereby establishing the Animal Sentience Committee, which ensures that any new legislation pays due regard to animal welfare.
Regarding farmed animals, the previous Conservative Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare set out the ambition to improve the welfare of farmed animals across the board while working closely with the industry to ensure the sector is able to deal with the significant challenges currently being faced around the world and still move towards sustainable higher welfare farming practices. For example, the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway prioritised areas for additional improvement in the health and welfare for pigs, cattle, sheep and poultry. One of these priorities included supporting producers to transition away from confinement systems as well as to other higher welfare practices and systems.
I understand that some organisations, including the RSPCA, have launched campaigns urging the Government to publish consultations on phasing out the use of enriched colony cages for laying hens and of farrowing crates for pigs. The RSPCA has played a significant role in leading the way on encouraging high standards when it comes to this issue, with RSPCA Assured not permitting the use of colony cages for laying hens or farrowing crates for pigs.
I support banning cages or close confinement systems where clear scientific evidence demonstrates that they are detrimental to animal and bird health and welfare. That is in keeping with much of the UK’s existing legislation on the use of cages and crates, including: the ban on keeping calves in veal crates, introduced in 1990; the ban on keeping sows in close confinement stalls, introduced in 1999; and the ban on the use of battery cages for laying hens, introduced in 2012.
I also note that the market itself has been driving the move to alternative systems for laying hens away from the use of cages, primarily towards free range and barn. The transition to non-cage egg production has been supported by the major supermarkets, which have pledged to stop selling shell eggs from hens kept in colony cages by 2025, and some supermarkets have extended this to products containing liquid or powdered eggs. That shift by retailers has accelerated the move away from colony cage systems. Egg producers and consumers should rightly have pride in the quality of British eggs, with around 75 per cent coming from free range, barn and organic production systems. In addition, the last Government announced a grant scheme to support laying-hen and pullet farmers with flocks of 1,000 birds or more to refurbish or replace existing housing, supporting a transition to cage-free systems.
Regarding pigs, while the UK is ahead of most other pig producing countries in terms of zero confinement farrowing, in that 40 per cent of the national sow breeding herd farrow freely on outdoor pig units with no option of confinement, I do share the concerns about the issues raised and have supported the continual improvement in farm animal health and welfare the Pathway provided through partnership between government, farmers, vets, the wider industry and the supply chain. I note that the British Veterinary Association has called for the phasing out of farrowing crates, saying that the Government should provide a 15-year transition period by which all new builds cannot contain farrowing crates except where already agreed, to be followed by a shift from a crate system to alternative methods, such as adaptive farrowing accommodation or free farrowing systems, as soon as possible.
The Minister has confirmed that the Government is "considering very carefully" the use of cages and other close confinement systems for farmed animals, including farrowing crates. I hope that, if the Government does plan reforms, Ministers will work with industry to make sure they are affordable, practical, effective and, at their heart, promote animal and bird welfare. Please be assured I will monitor any developments closely.
