Animal Welfare Advisory Committee

HC Deb 08 July 1996 vol 281 cc26-7W

Sir Roger Sims

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what further progress has been made in forming an Animal Welfare Advisory Committee; and if he will make a statement. [36469]

Mr. Arbuthnot

In my previous answer to the hon. Member for Brent, East (Mr. Livingstone) of 20 December 1995,Official Report, column 1173, I undertook to make a further announcement about membership and detailed procedures of the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. The committee has now been formed under the chairmanship of Dr. Jeremy Lucke, a former president of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. The committee will be meeting later in the summer to agree working arrangements and will submit an initial report on these to my Department's chief scientific adviser. It is intended that unclassified versions of the committee's substantive reports will be published.