Animal Welfare Bill

Yes. I have tremendous respect for the hon. and learned Lady’s legal background, having served on the Human Rights Committee with her, but I stress that the arrangement is open-ended and there is no guarantee that anything will be introduced. There is no provision for returning matters to the House if no action has been taken. We need the flexibility that the hon. and learned Lady rightly identifies and some sort of guarantee, which simply does not exist at the moment. Several matters are missing from the Bill, but perhaps Ministers will tell us that they will be introduced subsequently. I make it clear that I shall not table an amendment on hare coursing or anything else that is missing from the measure—it will have to stay missing as far as I am concerned. However, we need clarity about pet fairs. The analysis of the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (David Lepper), who is a close parliamentary neighbour, is correct and the position is unclear. Many of us believe that the Pet Animals Act 1951 bans pet fairs, yet they go on all the time. It appears that they will be licensed or registered and allowed to continue, contrary to the 1951 Act. That is legal nonsense and needs to be cleared up. I shall introduce a new clause on pet fairs to try to achieve a ban. I am not confident that the Government will accept it—the Under-Secretary shakes his head without having seen it, which is to prejudge the matter. Never mind, I hope that it will give the Government the opportunity at least to issue a statement to clarify the position. The Government’s intentions on other issues, with which hon. Members are familiar, such as electric shock collars and circuses, need clarification. The Secretary of State mentioned game birds in her opening speech. When they are in cages, it is unclear whether they are classified for the purposes of legislation as farm animals, to which agricultural provisions apply, protected animals, to which the Bill applies, or something in between. Clarity is important if we expect various authorities to take action to protect their welfare. I should be grateful if the Under-Secretary commented on that in his winding-up speech. The draft Bill has been watered down in a number of respects and I am not sure about the reason for that. We need to understand the Government’s thinking rather than simply abandoning provisions that many of us believed were useful. For example, clause 7 covers fighting. It appears satisfactory and I hope that no one would object to its content. However, in the draft Bill, the provision contained much more, which has been removed. I should be grateful if the Under-Secretary explained the reason for that in his winding-up speech. In the draft Bill, for example, the equivalent of clause 7 made it an offence to use photographic and recording equipment at a fight, but that provision has now been removed. Presumably, therefore, under the new arrangements people will be able to film these disgusting activities and escape a penalty. We need to be told why that provision has been removed, but it was not mentioned in the Secretary of State’s introductory speech.