Animal Welfare Bill

moved Amendment No. 1:"Page 1, line 19, at end insert—" ““(   )   Before making regulations under subsection (3), the appropriate national authority must consult— (a)   such persons appearing to them to represent relevant interests, and (b)   such other persons, as they consider appropriate.”” The noble Baroness said: I am pleased that we have reached the Committee stage of this Bill and I am certain that we have an interesting set of issues to explore. The first amendment that I have tabled seeks to probe exactly what the Government intend to do when they come to make regulations. This Bill essentially paves the way for secondary legislation. During its consideration in another place, the EFRA Committee’s report made it quite clear that there were widespread concerns about the scope of the legislation to be introduced by the Bill and expressed the wish that all the issues be thoroughly explored. So this amendment seeks to examine the power in Clause 1 to use regulations in order to extend the provisions of the Bill—for example, to protect invertebrates or animals still at the embryonic or foetal stage of development. I shall be interested to hear from the Minister precisely who is to be consulted when those regulations are made. It is important that it is made clear who will be involved in the consultation, in what capacity and what interests they represent so as to ensure that all the relevant considerations are taken into account. This Bill is being considered against the background of what, of course, has been deep concern in the other place about the provisions of the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, so I suppose that we are particularly sensitised to the issues surrounding secondary legislation. Therefore, a theme running through the amendments that I have tabled is that we shall want to know exactly what the Government intend in secondary legislation. I beg to move.