PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Animal Welfare Strategy - 18 December 2025 (Commons/Commons Chamber)

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the Government’s animal welfare strategy.

We are a country that cares deeply for animals, and we have a proud history of being pioneers when it comes to ensuring the very best for them. We had the world’s first known animal welfare law in 1822, and produced animal welfare pioneers and organisations known across the globe today.

As announced this morning in Environment, Food and Rural Affairs oral questions, next week we intend to publish our animal welfare strategy, which takes forward our manifesto promises through the most ambitious reform to animal welfare in a generation. It will be a comprehensive package of reforms that will improve the lives of millions of animals across the UK. It covers all our relevant manifesto commitments, such as the commitments to give farm animals greater freedom and dignity, and to protect our wildlife. By improving animal welfare standards, we are supporting healthier, more productive livestock that deliver better outcomes for farmers, farm profitability and food security, and the high welfare standards that British consumers expect.

The animal welfare strategy builds on this Government’s proven track record of delivering reforms for animals, including introducing new world-leading standards for zoos earlier this year and supporting the passage of the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Act 2025, to tackle puppy smuggling, and the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Act 2025, whose Royal Assent you have just announced, Mr Speaker, and which is about the worrying of livestock. Labour has always been the party of animal welfare. During our last term in government, we enacted the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and we banned foxhunting.

Thank you for granting this urgent question, Mr Speaker. I know that you are an animal lover, as indeed we are as a nation.

As a veterinary surgeon, I have animal health and welfare very close to my heart. We have now reached the end of the year for Parliament, and we still do not have sight of the Government’s animal welfare strategy. The Prime Minister has said on the record that the strategy would be released by the end of the year. That has been repeated by Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs many times in the Chamber and again today, as well as in answers to repeated written questions from many Members across the House.

We need to find out, and be able to scrutinise, the Government’s plans for our animals. We face significant issues: animal digital identification; disease outbreaks such as avian influenza and bluetongue; the threat of foot and mouth disease or African swine fever coming into the UK; a Competition and Markets Authority inquiry into veterinary services; the need for a new Veterinary Surgeons Act; a shortage of vets; and a farming community struggling with anxiety and financial pressures caused by this Labour Government.

I put on the record this House’s thanks to all the vets, farmers and frontline officials in the Animal and Plant Health Agency who are on duty over the Christmas period, tending to and protecting our animals. The UK has some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world.

We should be very proud of the previous Conservative Government’s achievements in improving animal welfare, such as banning the export of live animals, including cattle, sheep, pigs and horses, for fattening or slaughter in the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act 2024; increasing from six months to five years the maximum prison sentence for animal cruelty in the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021; and enshrining animal sentience in UK law with the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, and establishing the Animal Sentience Committee, so that any new legislation must pay due regard to animal welfare. The baton has now been passed from the Conservatives to Labour. Please can we hear what the Government plan to do in this crucial area, so that the House can scrutinise what the future is for our animals and the people who care for them?

I want to reassure the shadow Minister that we will publish the animal welfare strategy before Christmas, as we have promised. He is right that we face a number of significant issues. We will be tackling those issues head-on. I disagree with the shadow Minister’s characterisation of our Government. This will be the most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation. However, I agree with and echo his thanks to the vets, farmers and regulators for their work all year round, but particularly over the festive period.

As we approach Christmas and Boxing day, let me record my pride in having been an MP when we banned foxhunting. I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and the Government’s commitment to welfare. Will she reiterate to the minority of people who still seem to think that it is pleasurable to kill foxes that that is totally illegal and inappropriate?

I could not agree more. I was not a Member of this House during the last Labour Government, but as a proud Labour member, I am proud that that Government banned foxhunting. I reiterate what my hon. Friend says: those who engage in this illegal practice should face the full force of the law.

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker. I thank the Secretary of State for her comments.

Let me mention something that we would like the animal welfare strategy to focus on. The Veterinary Surgeons Act was passed in 1966, and a lot has changed since then. More than 60% of veterinary practices are now owned by corporates; they used to be owned by individual veterinary surgeons. Medical care for animals is now provided by a whole range of para-professionals, including equine dental technicians, cattle hoof trimmers and animal physiotherapists, who are all unregulated. We also have very highly trained veterinary nurses, but the title of veterinary nurse is not protected.

I urge the Government to make updating the Veterinary Surgeons Act a centrepiece of their animal welfare strategy. The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the British Veterinary Association and the veterinary profession are calling for that. It would be good for owners, good for animals, and good for the veterinary profession, so I urge the Government to make that a key component of the strategy.

I am really excited about the fact that now that I am an MP, I will not be on call for Christmas, as I have been many times. I remind everyone not to feed their dogs mince pies and chocolate, and not to let them get hold of onion gravy, as that is what keeps us really, really busy at Christmas.

I thank the hon. Gentleman, on behalf of the whole House, for what he has just said, and for his service, before he became a Member and since. This is a really important area, and we absolutely appreciate that the Veterinary Surgeons Act needs updating. I can reassure him that we are continuing to pursue opportunities to do that.

I can confirm that. As I said earlier, measures are already in place to provide funding to farmers to help them improve animal welfare standards. Those measures include veterinary visits to help them continue to improve their animal welfare standards.

I call the Father of the House.

We have some of the best animal welfare standards for farm animals in the world. Of course, we can do much by regulation, but the best way to protect farm animals is to have contented and prosperous family farmers who love their animals and care for them. When I arrived in the House, farmers used to talk in glowing terms about Tom Williams, the Labour Minister for agriculture in the Attlee Government, who started 80 years of prosperity for our farmers. I beg the Secretary of State and the Minister, if they are really concerned about animal welfare and the welfare of our farmers, to drop the absurd family farm tax.

I say politely to the right hon. Gentleman that the time to raise those issues was earlier today.

Merry Christmas to you, Mr Speaker, and to everyone across the House. I reiterate what colleagues from across the Chamber have said about the importance of reforming the Veterinary Surgeons Act. It is 60 years old and has not kept pace with modern medicine, new technology or the way that veterinary practices are run. Will my right hon. Friend set out how the animal welfare strategy will tackle the extraordinary increase in veterinary fees, which is a massive cost of living issue? Finally, I thank veterinary surgeons across the UK, particularly those at Glasgow University’s veterinary hospital, who I had cause to see rather more frequently than I would have liked this year.

Those cats need feeding! Come on, Secretary of State.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think you have much in common with my hon. Friend. I thank her for her doughty campaigning on this issue. The work we are doing on the Veterinary Surgeons Act is separate from the animal welfare strategy, but as we have discussed privately, that work is ongoing.

I call the Chair of the Select Committee.

I feel I should declare an interest, Mr Speaker, in that Mrs Carmichael will be one of those veterinary surgeons who will be on call on Christmas Day this year. It will be me in the kitchen, yet again. [Interruption.] That’s fine; it keeps the turkeys safe, at least. Just 10 days ago, Baroness Hayman told us that we would get the strategy before Christmas. Publishing it next week is, I suppose, strictly within the letter of that, but it is not quite within the spirit. The Department seems to be struggling a bit with its strategies at the moment. Our Select Committee had an excellent session with the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle), but as soon as she was out the door, no fewer than four fisheries management strategies landed in my inbox. As a new year’s resolution, will the Secretary of State look at how these things are handled, so that this House can scrutinise future strategies?

May I start by thanking the right hon. Gentleman’s wife for her service over the Christmas period? I am glad to hear that, by the sound of it, he will be spending a lot of time in his kitchen. We promised that we would publish the strategy before Christmas, and we will do precisely that, but obviously we would like to discuss the strategy with colleagues from across the House when it has been published.

I thank the Secretary of State for the update and for engaging with the various animal welfare charities. I am particularly interested in the farmed animals section, given that we have millions of farmed animals in this country. Farmers, I find, are so often the best conservationists, and they want to do even more. Can the Secretary of State confirm that British farmers will continue to lead the world with strong animal welfare standards, and will she consider what more support can be provided to help them do so and to get the message out to consumers so that they can make more informed choices?

My hon. Friend is a great campaigner for his constituency and does great work locally. We do indeed have a good reputation for animal welfare around the world. I was in Brussels recently meeting my counterparts at the European Commission, and they were very interested in what we are doing here in the UK. Obviously they are doing different things in Europe, but it is always interesting to share notes.

I have two questions—one practical and one policy. Let us make no mistake: the Government have been dragged here today to answer an urgent question about their welfare strategy, which they are bringing forward next week but which we cannot scrutinise because Parliament goes into recess today. Why is that the case? On policy, I have written a number of times about animal welfare in the rescue and rehoming sector. I hope that that is included in the strategy. Will the Secretary of State confirm that it is being looked at and whether further regulations are needed?

I am sure that there will be opportunities in the new year to have a discussion about the animal welfare strategy. I will be able to confirm the answer to the hon. Member’s question when the strategy comes out.

My constituent Bryan Griffiths tells me that trail hunting in Warwickshire is often a smokescreen for illegal hunting, with devastating consequences for livestock. When will the Government start the consultation on the future of trail hunting?

In the new year, we will issue a consultation on banning trail hunting, as we committed to do in our manifesto. My hon. Friend is right in the things she says about it.

Since we cannot scrutinise the strategy today, may I ask what action is included in it to phase out animal testing in scientific laboratories?

As the hon. Member will probably know, that is a joint responsibility with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which leads on it. We are working closely with DSIT. It released a strategy recently that ensures we can use alternatives more quickly to phase out animal testing. I would be happy to discuss it with him, but it is led by DSIT rather than DEFRA. It is seen as an animal welfare issue, but it sits with DSIT.

I hope that you, Mr Speaker, like me and my family have already got your turkey ordered from the local butcher for Christmas. Like many of my constituents, I really care about animal welfare, so I look forward to the strategy being published next week. Will the Secretary of State outline the steps that the Government are taking to ensure that there is really clear labelling and communication, so that we can all be confident when we go and buy our Christmas turkey of the welfare of the animal we are eating?

I have ordered my meat from my local butcher already. It is a bit late in the day, but I thank my hon. Friend for the reminder to those who may not have done so already. We want to make sure that there is transparency, and we are working on labelling. It will not be part of this strategy, but we are looking at it separately.

I have put my order in at Booths and the local butcher!

We are indeed a nation of animal lovers, yet every year 200,000 sows are kept in farrowing crates where they cannot even turn around, while millions of hens are kept in tiny spaces no bigger than an A4 piece of paper. Those are cruel, cramped conditions that cause a short life of pain and suffering. Following the recent cross-party letter that I initiated, will the Secretary of State confirm that the animal welfare strategy will include an end to the cruel use of farrowing crates and cages and, importantly, support for farmers through this transition so that people can have confidence in so-called welfare-assured systems?

I know that the hon. Member is active on the issue of farrowing crates. Some 50% of the sow herd give birth outside, but we are looking at what more we can do to deal with the rest that do not; that is a priority for the Government.

My wife, who is a radiographer, is on call on Christmas day, but luckily we are going to the in-laws, so hopefully that will cover it.

You won’t be in the kitchen, then?

They’re not going to risk that!

Mr Speaker, we know you are an animal lover—the world knows that—but some may recall that our great friend, Sir David, was a passionate animal lover, too. One cause that was very close to his heart was pig farrowing crates. Another was banning the import of foreign hunting trophies, which is an awful trade. There was a private Member’s Bill in the last Session that sailed through the Commons but ran into trouble in the Lords. Can the Secretary of State confirm that the Government are committed to banning the import of hunting trophies? At the moment, they are not providing any private Member’s Bill Fridays for other reasons, so how will that ban be achieved?

I found Sir David Amess to be a really good and generous friend; I went on a number of parliamentary visits with him, and I thank the right hon. Member for what he said about Sir David.

We are committed to banning hunting trophies. It is a conservation issue, so it will not be in the animal welfare strategy, but we will be taking measures forward separately.

South Norfolk’s farmers produce some of the highest quality pork and poultry products in the world because they are so proud of the high animal welfare standards they have. May I urge the Minister to work closely with colleagues in the Department for Business and Trade to ensure that we protect our farms from lower standards across the seas, which we have been doing brilliantly in these first 18 months?

I can reassure my hon. Friend that that is precisely what we are doing—we are protecting the high standards we have here in the UK in the trade deals that we are doing with other countries around the world.

The Australia and New Zealand trade deals signed by Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government undercut the standards that are demanded of British farmers, including on animal welfare. Will the Government seek to renegotiate the trade deals with Australia and New Zealand, and will they ban the import of food produced with antibiotic growth promoters?

I know that one of my Conservative predecessors, Michael Gove, has been very critical of the trade deals done by the last Government with Australia and New Zealand, but the hon. Member will appreciate that it is very difficult to unpick trade deals once they are in place.

Merry Christmas to you, Mr Speaker, and all the staff of the House. There is no such thing as cruelty-free fur, as the last Labour Government recognised when they banned the fur farming industry in the UK. That case has been made powerfully by my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones) and organisations like Respect for Animals. Beyond the animal welfare strategy, and when the Animal Welfare Committee reports, will full and favourable consideration be given to finally banning the fruits of this vile trade by ending the import of real fur products?

I reassure my hon. Friend that we are looking at this issue, and there will be further details in the strategy.

Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker. May I thank you for signing the Christmas card of my young constituent, who was the winner of our Christmas card competition? When I gave it back to her, she was thrilled.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Lush store in Bath. Lush has been a leading advocate for ending animal testing, championing cruelty-free science and cosmetics, and investing in innovative and humane alternatives. The Secretary of State has partly answered the question on the “Replacing animals in science” strategy, but of course it will be closely linked to the animal welfare strategy. Will she commit to any strategy that is published being backed up by primary legislation, with legally binding targets and timelines for ending animal testing and cruelty?

As I said in response to a previous question, this is a DSIT lead, not a DEFRA lead. We do work closely with DSIT, and as a Labour Government, we are committed to phasing out animal testing as quickly as possible, but obviously we need alternatives to be in place to do so.

Merry Christmas to you, Mr Speaker, and all colleagues across the House. Before my election to this place, I spent five years in the shadow DEFRA team, working with my old boss, my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones). We had the animal welfare brief and spent many months and years on these issues, so I welcome the strategy almost finally arriving.

In Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire, we have wonderful farmers who work to the highest standards—British standards. While it would have been helpful to read the strategy today, can my right hon. Friend assure me and farmers back home that our strategy will support rather than hinder, be rooted in the highest of standards, and be rolled out properly, speedily and proactively?

The short answer to my hon. Friend—I am sure you will appreciate this, Mr Speaker—is yes.

The top animal welfare issue raised with me by my constituents is the impact of fireworks—particularly ad hoc and unannounced displays—on pets and their owners. Please will the Secretary of State reassure me and others across the House, who I am sure are concerned about that issue as well, that the strategy will finally tackle it and provide much-needed relief to pets and their owners?

That is raised with me in my constituency too. It is a tricky issue, however, because there are lots of people across the country who, at different religious festivals and obviously on Guy Fawkes day, enjoy fireworks. It is about getting the balance right.