Louie French has pressed the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the progress of the Kept Animals Bill which provides welfare protections for pets, livestock and kept wild animals as well as asking for further animal protections to be explored.
Louie shares and recognises the importance of animal welfare to constituents of Old Bexley and Sidcup and will continue to campaign for greater protections in this area.
You can watch Louie’s question to the Environment Secretary above or read below:
Louie French:
“What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the progress of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.”
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
“The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was introduced in June 2021 as part of our animal welfare action plan. The Bill delivers three important manifesto commitments—strengthening protections for pets, farmed and kept wild animals—as well as other valued reforms. It was reintroduced in May following Her Majesty’s most Gracious Speech and will continue to Report as soon as parliamentary time allows.”
Louie French:
“I thank the Secretary of State for his answer and welcome him to his position. I am sure that he will do an excellent job and look forward to working with him. I also welcome the Government’s commitment to the kept animals Bill, which will introduce landmark protections for pets, livestock and kept wild animals. That will include helping in the fight against puppy and kitten smuggling and cracking down on pet theft. Those milestone protections are hugely important to my constituents in Old Bexley and Sidcup who, like me, are animal lovers—hopefully, they may even vote for Westminster dog of the year next week. Will he provide assurances that the Government’s commitment to this landmark legislation will mean that Ministers will now go further and explore measures such as increasing the minimum age at which dogs can be brought to the UK, and prohibiting the importation to the UK of heavily pregnant dogs and those with cropped ears?”
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
“The Kept Animals Bill does include the powers to introduce those restrictions through secondary legislation. Last year, Her Majesty’s Government launched a consultation that proposed measures for both commercial and non-commercial movements of dogs into Great Britain, and I am told that there were more than 20,000 responses, so there was clearly a great deal of interest from the public. My Department will publish a response in due course.”
