§ 21. Mr. CanavanTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps his Department is taking to improve standards of animal welfare. [47178]
§ Mr. MorleyWe continue to work to improve standards at EU and national level. In Europe, we gave priority under our Presidency to advancing negotiations on welfare standards for livestock on farms, and achieved agreement on an important new Directive at the June Agriculture Council: we also prevailed on the Commission to bring forward its overdue proposal on the welfare of laying hens, and wasted no time in opening negotiations on it. At home, we have various initiatives in hand and planned, including a forthcoming review of our rules on the welfare of livestock in transit and at market, now that our new transit rules have been in operation for a year.