§ Lord Mancroftasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had any prior knowledge about a letter to Labour Members of Parliament from veterinary adviser Bill Swann urging them to support the Hunting Bill. [HL1150]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty)The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had no prior knowledge for the letter.
§ Lord Mancroftasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the registrar proposed in the Hunting Bill will be able to take into account pre-emptive control of pests as opposed to reactive control. [HL1153]
§ Lord WhittyThe proposal in the Hunting Bill is to establish a system for making case-by-case decisions on whether hunting activities may take place to ensure that unnecessary suffering is prevented. An applicant would have to show evidence—which could cover any factor he wished the registrar to consider—that both the tests of utility and cruelty are met in the case of the particular hunting proposed. The registrar will determine, on the basis of an objective assessment of all the evidence provided by both the applicant and the animal welfare body, whether the proposed hunting satisfies the two tests.
§ Baroness Goldingasked Her Majesty's Government:
When the evidence submitted to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on hunting will be made available on computer disk. [HL1154]
§ Lord WhittyWe have placed in the Library of the House a complete verbatim transcript of the hearings held on 9, 10 and 11 September 2002, in Portcullis House. Also in the Library are copies of the papers of evidence submitted by the witnesses at the hearings. All this information is available on Defra's website.
The 194 letters from organisations or individual hunts in response to my right honourable friend the Minister for Rural Affairs' letter of 31 May 2002 are also available in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. Members of the public may view the responses in Defra's headquarters library. Copies of the responses will shortly be available on computer disk.