8. What is the Welsh Government's policy on the keeping of primates as pets? OQ59629

Thank you. The UK Government's Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill proposed prohibiting the keeping, breeding, sale and transfer of primates without specific licence. I supported its provisions in full and I'm extremely frustrated it's been dismantled.

I just want to say very unequivocally that primates are not suitable to be kept as pets, and certainly homes are not suitable for keeping primates. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has needed to rescue monkeys whose welfare has been compromised by owners in Wales and has directly encountered how private primate ownership can lead to suffering. The Welsh Government has a very good record on animal welfare, which I hope will continue. Following on from Vikki Howells earlier, will the Minister consider taking action to outlaw the private ownership of primates and save countless monkeys from a life of misery in inappropriate settings?

Thank you. As I said in my original answer to you, what the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was doing was to better regulate and license. It wasn't looking at a complete ban; it was just looking at the regulations. I hope that would have been a significant step to where we would be, following the Bill.

I mentioned to Vikki Howells that I'd asked officials to work with lawyers to have a look to see what we can do in relation to that, and I will certainly be very interested, if it's correct what officials have been told, that DEFRA are looking to do this through a statutory instrument, and I'd be very happy to work with them to do that, because I think they would go out to consultation, and we could look then to legislation. And maybe that would be the opportunity also to see if we could strengthen it to look at a ban. I honestly don't know the answer to that, but I think it is something that we could look at.

I've also requested data under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976 from our local authorities to see exactly what the extent of private ownership is here in Wales, because I think it would be good to see how significant, or not, the problem is.