Animal Welfare Bill

moved Amendment No. 41:"After Clause 8, insert the following new clause—" ““SALE OF ANIMALS ON THE INTERNET (1)   The appropriate national authority shall by regulations make such provision as the authority thinks fit for the purpose of regulating the sale of animals on the internet. (2)   Without prejudice to the generality of the power under subsection (1), the regulations shall, in particular, make provision with regard to persons who are involved in such sales but who are not themselves responsible for the animals concerned. (3)   For the purposes of this section, selling an animal includes transferring, or agreeing to transfer, ownership of the animal in consideration of entry by the transferee into another transaction. (4)   Power to make regulations under subsection (1) includes power— (a)   to provide that breach of a provision of the regulations is an offence; (b)   to apply a relevant post-conviction power in relation to conviction for an offence under the regulations; (c)   to make provision for fees or other charges in relation to the carrying out of functions under the regulations; (d)   to make different provision for different cases or areas; (e)   to provide for exemptions from a provision of the regulations, either subject to specified conditions or without conditions; (f) to make incidental, supplementary, consequential or transitional provision or savings. (5)   Power to make regulations under subsection (1) does not include power to create an offence triable on indictment or punishable with— (a)   imprisonment for a term exceeding 51 weeks, or (b)   a fine exceeding level 5 on the standard scale. (6)   Regulations under subsection (1) may provide that a specified offence under the regulations is to be treated as a relevant offence for the purposes of section 22. (7)   Before making regulations under subsection (1), the appropriate national authority shall consult such persons appearing to the authority to represent any interests concerned as the authority considers appropriate. (8)   In this section, ““specified”” means specified in regulations under subsection (1). (9)   Regulations under this section— (a)   shall be made by statutory instrument, and (b)   may not be made unless a draft has been laid before and approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.”” The noble Baroness said: The amendment addresses an issue that is referred to in the regulatory impact assessment for the Bill. It states that online pet shops require a pet shop licence in exactly the same way as normal pet shops. The amendment probes the parallels between online pet shops and normal pet shops. The Government have stated they intend to introduce a code of practice on internet sales. Will this code of practice have any statutory force? I assume that it will have. Will it ensure that website owners of auction sites, swap shops and chat rooms take responsibility should they promote or facilitate the trade in live animals? The amendment covers both the sale of animals in online pet shops and the wider internet trade through third parties, which takes place on auction sites, for example. It is certainly a growing area of activity. I seek assurance from the Minister that these perhaps-less-direct examples will not escape from the remit of the Government’s thinking. Would internet service providers be deemed responsible under Clause 3 and therefore be held to account for any suffering caused by their activities? The International Fund for Animal Welfare’s report, Caught in the Web, is based on a wide study of this problem area. The study found more than 9,000 animals and wildlife products for sale online in just one week. More than 70 per cent of the animals concerned were species protected by international law. So this is not a minor issue; it is very important. More than 140 live primates, including chimps and gorillas , were found to be for sale, together with a Siberian tiger and giraffes. Perhaps this subject captures the imagination less than circuses and so on because it is a bit technical, involving a lot of IT, and it is invisible compared with real-life sales in public places. For that reason, I also included in my amendment the suggestion that regulation should be made by affirmative resolution so that this subject is scrutinised by Parliament in order to try to keep up with developments in technology. In summary, I seek an assurance from the Minister that the rules will be made to coincide with the regulations on pet sales, as promised in the regulatory impact assessment. I beg to move.