Animal Welfare Bill

The hon. Member for Sunderland, North (Bill Etherington) mentioned greyhounds. I agreed with much of what he said. I shall say something about the subject towards the end of my speech, although I shall reach slightly different conclusions because I have slightly different views on the industry. As an animal lover, I support the Bill. My hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) has his dog Buster and, previously, his dog Spike; I have my cats Boris and Barney, although they are not as ambitious as Buster and Spike, who have received plenty of publicity. I think that we are all animal lovers, which is why we support the Bill and why there is a broad consensus on it. I believe, however, that some elements are flawed. I support the Bill because it moves away from a narrow definition of cruelty. It is more welfare orientated, and is designed to ensure that there is a duty of care. The 1911 Act consolidated a number of 19th century Acts. This 2006 Bill faces a great challenge: to last, and to support the rising standards of welfare over time rather than simply addressing today’s needs. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, of which I have the honour to be a member, considered the Government’s response to the pre-legislative scrutiny that took place before my election. That showed me the value of Select Committees, and I believe that my Committee can play a greater role in overcoming some of the problems of secondary legislation. I recognise that this is an enabling Bill. I asked the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) why he wanted to propose so many amendments. He may believe that they will allow the enabling legislation to become broader. I do not think that that will happen—but if he intends to table probing amendments, I think that that is a good idea. It is only through the prism of the various issues such as tail docking and circus animals that we can make sense of the legislation and establish whether it will work. I hesitate to mention my father, because when I quote him people always assume that he is dead, whereas he is very much alive. However, he told me that the devil is in the detail—and in the Bill the devil is the question of how we will deal with secondary legislation. If we did not raise all the individual issues and consider how the Bill will be translated into secondary legislation, we might be subjected to fair criticism. The public would accuse us of leaving aside the hard decisions, as the DEFRA Select Committee put it. I am happy that secondary legislation will be subject to the affirmative procedure, but I am concerned and surprised that, rather like other codes, the farm codes, which date from the Agriculture (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1968, will go from the affirmative procedure to the negative procedure. I must admit that I am very unimpressed with the regulatory impact assessment, which I believe the Under-Secretary has to sign, but it must be said that a number of such assessments of Bills are not entirely satisfactory. I am particularly concerned about the extra long-term pressures that this regulation will put on councils such as Southend, which is already underfunded. Secondary legislation is likely to impose even greater responsibilities on councils. This issue was raised during pre-legislative scrutiny, but it has not been sufficiently dealt with. I welcome the inclusion of clause 10, which obliges the Government to consult the ““appropriate national authority””, but I am concerned that that is too broad a definition. Perhaps we should extend the obligation to regional authorities, particularly devolved Assemblies, and a number of interest groups also want to contribute to the process. I appreciate that the Government cannot extend the terms of the clause too widely, but extending them would assist the secondary legislation process. There is no duty on the Government to look at the science and the facts behind the decisions that they are taking, which concerns me. Animal welfare is a particularly emotive subject. When someone says, ““This is an animal welfare issue””, almost all of us think, ““Such a view must be right.”” However, there are people on both sides of the fence examining animal welfare issues, and not all objections made on the basis of animal welfare are right. Members in all parts of the House doubtless received briefings on this issue from various organisations. Some were very good; others were very emotive and lacked scientific fact. My worry is that during the secondary legislation process, the Government and members of the Committee will be swayed by emotive and impassioned pleas, rather than by science. I am also worried about the likely pace of introduction of secondary legislation. I implore the Under-Secretary to consider quality, rather than sticking rigidly to the timetable. Matters such as riding schools, livery yards, cat and other animal homes, pet shops, pet fairs, mutilations and the tethering of horses must all be dealt with and legislated on, according to the current timetable, before the end of 2007. That might prove a little too much to take on, given that the current situation has evolved over time since 1911. It is more important that we get this legislation right than that we simply to get it on to the statute book.