Better Deal for Animals campaign

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about the Better Deal for Animals campaign.

It is vital that Britain’s high animal welfare, food and environmental standards are upheld in all future trade deals. I share your concern that without the necessary legal guarantees in place, our high standards risk being undercut by cheap, low-quality imports that would be illegal if they were grown or produced in the UK.

I voted for amendments to both the Agriculture Bill and the Trade Bill that would require agricultural imports meet animal welfare, environmental, plant health and food safety standards at least as high as those required for UK produced goods.

Disappointingly, these amendments were voted down by the UK Government, despite its manifesto pledge to not compromise on standards in future trade deals. Both the Agriculture and Trade Bills are undergoing scrutiny in the House of Lords, where my colleagues will seek to strengthen provisions in these Bills, including on trade standards.

I have long supported enshrining the principle of animal sentience in law and have consistently called on the UK Government to implement this important legislation. I believe animal sentience must apply to all policy areas and all sentient animals, including decapods and cephalopods. The law needs to confer an active duty to respect that sentience on all aspects of government and an annual report should be published detailing how this duty has been acted on.

The UK Government made a manifesto commitment to bring in new laws on animal sentience, however, it is unable to say when this legislation will be brought forward. I will be pressing the Government to enshrine animal sentience in UK law as soon as possible and certainly before the end of the Brexit transition period.

I also support the appointment of an independent Animal Welfare Commissioner, to operate in England and in collaboration with the devolved Administrations, to ensure policy is continually informed by the latest scientific evidence on animal sentience and best practice in animal welfare.

Thank you once again for contacting me and sharing your views.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP