Animal Welfare Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point, but it is theoretical because we have heard no such proposal from the Government. If the Government wish to be imaginative in dealing with secondary legislation, I would be happy to listen to their proposals, but, so far, we have not heard any. We have heard that the Bill will be subject to the normal legislative arrangements, and that we are to use a failing system of scrutiny via secondary legislation to deal with important aspects of it, namely all the provisions that are not included in the general proposals set out in the Bill before us today. If there is a better way of doing that, let us hear it from the Government, because so far we have heard nothing from them. I share the concern expressed by the hon. Member for East Surrey about the inadequacy of statutory instruments. I have raised with the Leader of the House and others the fact that statutory instruments cannot be amended, for example. We either accept them or reject them. The Government bring in their troops, who are told to support the statutory instrument, and even if one of their number points out a fault, they are placed under tremendous pressure to approve it. That is not a good system, and we need to improve it. On licensing and registration, I am worried that the Government are proposing to allow the registration of certain activities, rather than licensing them. The hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion raised that point earlier in connection with pet fairs. I remember when the district council in Lewes stopped registering roadside fast-food traders—hot dog stalls—because it could not control them; it could only register them. It found that the stalls were putting up signs saying ““Lewes district council registered””, as though some kind of mark of approval had been given. It can be counterproductive to register an activity. In the context of a duty of care and of animal welfare, we should consider licensing in most cases, rather than registration. I am not sure that the idea of registration is worth pursuing at all. We should certainly consider licensing for animal sanctuaries. Some very well-meaning people, who have run what they call sanctuaries, have actually collected large numbers of animals in their house and been unable to look after them properly. Consequently, animal welfare has suffered. We need to deal with that problem and stop describing such places as animal sanctuaries. I greatly welcome the Bill, which contains some very good provisions, but we need to make sure that its proposals can be followed through. My colleagues and I will seek to do so in Committee and on Report.