We are a nation of animal lovers, and animal welfare has been my priority since my election to parliament.
I am proud to have worked on several important legislative changes. For example, on farms we introduced new regulations for minimum standards for meat chickens, banned the use of conventional battery cages for laying hens and made CCTV mandatory in slaughterhouses in England. Similarly, for pets, microchipping became mandatory for dogs in 2015, we protected service animals via 'Finn's Law' and banned the commercial third-party sales of puppies and kittens (Lucy's Law').
Building on these steps, in 2021 I welcomed an ambitious and comprehensive Action Plan for Animal Welfare. This set out an array of future reforms for this Parliament and beyond.
Since its publication we have been delivering in ways exceeding our original plans. For instance, we have delivered four key manifesto commitments:
- We passed the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act. This recognises in law that all vertebrate animals and invertebrates such as crabs, lobsters and octopuses are sentient beings. This will form the bedrock of animal welfare policy of the future.
- We passed the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act, which introduced tougher sentences for animal cruelty, increasing maximum sentences from six months to five years.
- Last month, we made cat microchipping compulsory, which will help reunite lost pets with their owners.
- And just this week we announced that, having brought the Ivory Act into force in 2022, we will now be extending it to cover five endangered species: hippopotamus, narwhal, killer whale, sperm whale and walrus.
I am proud to represent a party that has done more than any other on animal welfare, delivering on a manifesto that was drafted with the public's priorities in mind. With this in mind, I am pleased to reveal that we are taking two further steps in delivering our Action Plan.
First, DEFRA has announced the launch of the new Animal Sentience Committee. It will advise government on how policy decisions should take account of animal welfare. The Committee's membership provides expertise from both veterinary and social science and covers farm, companion, and wild animals. We expect the Committee to begin its work next month.
Secondly, DEFRA has announced a consultation on new financial penalties of up to £5,000 for those who commit offences against animals. This will mean that, there is a new enforcement tool for use against the small minority of people who fail to protect the health and welfare of animals. This could apply, for example, if an animal is kept in poor living conditions due to a lack of appropriate shelter.