Lord Benyon: ...out over £46 million to date. This includes smaller value grants towards a specified list of items proven to be effective in raising farm productivity alongside environmental sustainability and animal health and welfare outcomes. It also includes larger grants run on a more flexible model where applicants are making higher-value investments for more significant infrastructure and...
Lord Benyon: ...for up to 14 years, disqualified from ownership or their dog euthanised if they allow it to become dangerously out of control. We are working in partnership with the police, local authorities and animal welfare organisations to ensure that the full range of existing dog control powers are effectively applied, encourage responsible dog ownership and reduce the risk of dog attacks. We...
Lord Benyon: Defra does not hold data on the number of ducks released for shooting. Defra publishes all its risk assessments on GOV.UK as part of the ‘Animal diseases: international and UK monitoring’ collection and continues to monitor the ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in both wild and kept birds, working with the game farming sector and conservation bodies, and will keep...
Lord Benyon: The Government takes the issue of livestock worrying very seriously, recognising the distress this can cause farmers and animals, as well as the financial implications. We will be taking forward measures from the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill individually through other means during the remainder of this Parliament.
Lord Benyon: Animal cruelty in England and Wales is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Similar legislation is in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Sentencing Council recently updated its sentencing guidelines for animal cruelty offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. The guidelines include ‘use of technology to record, publicise or promote cruelty’ as an aggravating factor...
Lord Benyon: ...as many farmers as possible can benefit from our offers. The Sustainable Farming Incentive focuses on supporting farmers to undertake activities to grow food while improving the environment and animal health and welfare. The Landscape Recovery scheme allows landowners and managers to take a more large-scale, long-term approach to producing environmental and climate goods on their land. We...
Lord Benyon: ...grant offer for farmers to fund investments in barn-top solar. This will first be available for cattle farmers wishing to install solar alongside wider upgrades to their calf housing as part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. Government have also announced the Farming Investment Fund, which supports farmers investing in technologies with improved energy-use efficiency and use of...
Lord Benyon: We have listened carefully to views expressed on pet abduction during the passage of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill and we will take this feedback into consideration when delivering this measure.
Lord Benyon: ...done with a variety of different organisations to make sure that we have some legislation here that will be effective and will reflect both the need and what our public demand, which is ever higher animal welfare standards. This legislation is welcome, as domestic travel agents are currently able to advertise and sell unacceptably low-welfare activities abroad to tourists without any...
Lord Benyon: The UK Government is committed to reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals, while safeguarding animal welfare. It has been our position for many years that we do not support the routine or predictable use of antibiotics, including where antibiotics are used to compensate for inadequate farming practices. This applies to all types of antibiotic use (i.e those prescribed for...
Lord Benyon: My Lords, the Government are committed to the ambitious agenda detailed in our manifesto and Our Action Plan for Animal Welfare. We have delivered six pieces of primary and four pieces of secondary legislation. We supported three Private Members’ Bills and have one statutory instrument before Parliament. We launched the animal health and welfare pathway for farm animals in England and we...
Lord Benyon: In May 2021, a commitment was included within the Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare to consider legislation to introduce a close season for brown hares in England. It was considered that a close season, prohibiting the killing of hares during their breeding season, would be likely to reduce the number of leverets (young hares) left motherless, giving them a better chance of...
Lord Benyon: We are working in partnership with the police, local authorities and animal welfare organisations to ensure that the full range of existing dog control powers are effectively applied to encourage responsible dog ownership and reduce the risk of dog attacks, including attacks amongst postal workers.
Lord Benyon: I can assure my noble friend that this is a priority under Our Action Plan for Animal Welfare and that we will bring it forward in this Parliament. We want to make sure that, as she says, we stop the infrastructure that supports this trade. As I say, there have been no cases of animals transported for slaughter or fattening since 2021 and we want to make sure that we make that permanent.
Lord Benyon: I sit in awe of my noble friend’s determination, and I want to make sure that there is no wrath in her. I gently remind her that we have a very good record on animal welfare. We have delivered in primary legislation the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act, the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act, the Ivory Act 2018, which came into force in 2022, as well as...
Lord Benyon: ...not the latter. You have a manifesto commitment, which you deliver over the course of a Parliament—that is what we are going to do. But the noble Baroness can sleep easy, because not one single animal is being exported. There is one vessel, the “Jolene”, which operates out of Ramsgate, which has not exported a single animal for fattening or slaughter. The concern that people have is...
Lord Benyon: One of the items in the kept animals Bill, on the keeping of primates as pets, is a good example of something we can deliver more quickly than we could in an all-encompassing Bill, and we are going to do that through secondary legislation. We are in consultation with a number of people who will bring forward items through Private Members’ Bills, with the Government’s support. We want to...
Lord Benyon: I certainly can. In addition to the list I gave earlier, we are bringing forward the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill; we have supported the Shark Fins Act and the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill; the Animal Welfare (Electronic Collars) (England) Regulations are now on the statute book; and we are supporting other Private Members’ Bills. As I said, some items can be...
Lord Benyon: ...that they are with us on this. Of course, in Northern Ireland there is a different circumstance, because long before we left the EU there was a one-island policy on biosecurity. There is, from the animals’ point of view, no difference between moving an animal for slaughter from Fermanagh to Cavan, but there is a big difference in moving an animal across the channel to a completely...
Lord Benyon: ...are focusing on payments with environmental benefits, encouraging farmers to achieve the standards required by their buyers. For example, ARLA is demanding that farmers do not pollute and have good animal welfare systems in place, and we, through our environmental land management schemes, are supporting farmers to do that.
