Clause 6 - Administration of poisons etc.
Animal Welfare Bill
6:15 pm
Anne Snelgrove (PPS (Lord Warner, Minister of State), Department of Health; South Swindon, Labour)
I will not trouble the Committee too long on amendment No. 196, which is a technical amendment. May I apologise for forgetting to welcome you to the Committee earlier, Mrs. Humble? Your chairing was so professional that I forgot that you were new to the role.
The aim of the amendment is to bring an objective element to the offence. If we do that, the defendant cannot argue that they did not know that the drug or substance was poisonous or injurious. That is important for enforcement; I hope that the Minister will take that into consideration. This is a probing amendment, so perhaps he can advise us on how the Government would tackle the issue.