Animal Welfare Bill

I beg the Minister’s pardon; perhaps I did not pick up on her words. I shall certainly read Hansard with extra care. In response to Amendment No. 77, the Minister said adequate time would be made available and spoke of a period of 40 days. Will that apply to all codes of practice, or only to the part of the Bill we are now considering? She also spoke of codes perhaps being issued for individual species, before going on to talk about the rearing of game birds and the possibility of separate codes of practice for circuses. We had a long discussion in an earlier debate about the rearing of game birds and the difficulties faced when considering circuses, to say nothing of the goldfish debate that also took place. Although these are obviously real issues, I suspect that the burden for the Government is to get the codes right—that in the end is the problem. One is trying to achieve good quality animal welfare without imposing a nanny state, and I understand why the Government are seeking a certain amount of flexibility. The Government have kindly produced a code relating to cats. At this point do we have any other codes in hand? Obviously we look forward to seeing some before Report. The Minister also referred to the ““fitness”” and ““appropriateness”” of the codes, which is only right. However, I return to the question I put to her earlier on the words ““thinks fit””. Perhaps she could enlarge a little on her original response. I ask that because what one person thinks is relevant may not be thought of as such by another. Ultimately I presume that it is for the Secretary of State to decide what is and is not considered fit to be included in the codes of practice. Again, I seek a little clarification here.