Animal Welfare Bill

I shall concentrate on Amendment No. 83 but, first, this is a very important clause concerning what are good practices. The code of practice is there to establish national standards. It helps to regulate behaviour on animal welfare issues. The most important aspect of the code of practice is that it has been approved by Parliament. Amendment No. 83 is intended to highlight that, in contrast to regulation, the Bill requires only negative parliamentary resolution for the code of practice. In other words, it will pass unless someone objects or complains. In the other place, Ben Bradshaw suggested that that was a change of policy from previous codes issued. It would be helpful to know why that is so. I ask the Minister to elaborate the reasoning behind that. Especially in a Bill that relies on secondary legislation, is it not important that Parliament has an active role in scrutinising what comes later? It would be very helpful if we could tighten the clause, especially because parliamentary approval for the code of practice is very important. That is the purpose of the amendment.