Penrith and The Border MP, Dr Neil Hudson, yesterday spoke at the Second Reading of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill in the House of Commons.
The Bill seeks to establish an Animal Sentience Committee that will look across Government departments to ensure that any policy has paid due regard to any possible adverse effects on the welfare as animals as sentient beings.
As the legislation is currently formulated, where the Animal Sentience Committee publishes a report, the Secretary of State must lay a response to the report before Parliament within three months.
During his speech Dr Hudson welcomed the Bill and the fact that the Committee will be allowed to scrutinise Government legislation and report their findings. Dr Hudson went on to make the point that, if the Government wants to further recognise animal sentience in law it must stamp down on different forms of pet and farm livestock theft too. He also called for consistency in upholding animal welfare standards when negotiating trade deals with other countries. Highlighting the point that if we are demonstrating a commitment to high animal welfare standards domestically we have to do the same internationally. Dr Hudson also called for stronger measures in upholding animal welfare standards in public sector food procurement and for measures to clamp down on puppy smuggling.
After the Commons session Dr Hudson commented:
“As an MP who is a veterinary surgeon, I fully welcome this Bill and this is a great opportunity to put animal sentience at the heart of UK legislation. It is important that the thinking on animal welfare is joined up across Government. We have the highest animal health and welfare standards in the world and the UK can be a beacon to the rest of the world on this. For instance, the Australia Trade Deal is not fair to the UK and we need to stand up for our fantastic British farmers who produce food using the highest standards.”
“It was good to see a cross-party consensus in support of the Bill, as it is vital that the legislation has broad support in both Houses. We have a duty of care over the fully sentient animals in our care and this Bill will help strengthen that.”
Speaking during the debate, Environment Secretary George Eustice said:
“This bill ensures that animal welfare is properly considered as Government formulates policy.
The Animal Sentience Committee will be there to scrutinise the process at which Ministers arrive at policy decisions. It will provide technical assessments of how well a given department obtained and assessed relevant elements of the animal welfare effects of the policy in question.”
