Clause 12 - Codes of practice
Animal Welfare Bill
10:45 am
Norman Baker (Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
I echo those concerns and remind the Committee that I raised a similar concern from a different angle on clause 4, which deals with unnecessary suffering. The Committee may remember that, in clause 4, a great deal of weight is put on the codes of practice to provide evidence for unnecessary suffering. Therefore, as the hon. Member for Leominster (Bill Wiggin) quite rightly says, what is important is that the codes of practice have some teeth in them; otherwise there could be a serious loophole in the Bill.