To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the ability of (a) decapod crustaceans and (b) cephalopods to experience pain.

The Government does not consider that there is evidence to show that decapod crustaceans or cephalopods experience pain. A recent publication, which is often used in support of such animals experiencing pain, (June 2012: Evidence for pain in decapod crustaceans; Animal Welfare 21 Suppl 2: 23-27) notes “... it is still difficult to state categorically that pain is experienced by decapods”.