Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 31 October 2025.
Ruth Jones
Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee, Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the compliance by farms with animal welfare requirements.
Ruth Jones
Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee, Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to ensure that the Animal and Plant Health Agency acts on reports of animal welfare breaches on farms by animal protection groups.
Ruth Jones
Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee, Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many reports the Animal and Plant Health Agency has received of alleged animal welfare breaches on farms in each of the last five years.
Ruth Jones
Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee, Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Animal and Plant Health Agency procedures on providing farms with advanced notice of an inspection on the enforcement of animal welfare standards.
Ruth Jones
Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee, Chair, Welsh Affairs Committee
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many farm inspections were conducted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency following a complaint of alleged breaches of animal welfare in each of the last five years.
Angela Eagle
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation.
The Animal and Plant Agency (APHA), as the national regulator for farmed animal welfare in Great Britain, undertake proactive and reactive inspections on farm to monitor compliance with legislation. The proactive inspections are risk based taking into account factors such as previous non-compliances, frequency of inspections and mortality rates. Reactive inspections are triggered by complaints and/or FSA referrals; any allegations of poor animal welfare is assessed by APHA and where there are non-compliances with the regulations, appropriate action is taken. This may include a follow-up, unannounced, inspection by APHA at a later date to confirm compliance. In most animal health and welfare cases of non-compliance, the statutory enforcement body will be the Local Authority.
Defra publishes data in the Multi-annual National Control Plan (MANCP) annual reports, relating to animal welfare official controls and enforcement activities undertaken within GB. Outcomes of inspections, rates of compliance and types of non-compliance on farms are included in the report.
MANCP reports are available here.
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