HC Deb 31 March 2004 vol 419 c1463W
Mr. Paterson

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what procedures she uses to balance her responsibilities for protecting human health with those for protecting and promoting animal welfare. [158816]

Mr. Bradshaw

Since the Department's creation in June 2001, we have placed sustainability at the heart of our actions to protect and ensure a better quality of life for both humans and livestock. Our policies for food, health, the environment and animals can only prosper and endure if they are fully integrated so that they don't undermine each other. The elements of protecting human health and protecting and promoting animal welfare are complementary. By improving animal welfare, the risk of disease in animals, including diseases transmissible to humans, is reduced.

An outline Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain was published in July 2003. It aims to improve the health and welfare of kept animals, and protect public health from animal disease. It sets out the principles that will help inform Government decisions, which include the need to be guided by the precautionary principle.

Policy on the control of zoonoses is a collaborative process involving Defra, DoH, and, in the case of foodborne zoonoses, the FSA. Arrangements currently in place support the level of collaboration necessary to ensure the protection of human health, animal health and animal welfare.