Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007

I am most grateful for the welcome for the regulations. I should like to add to what the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, said about the noble Baroness, Lady Byford, who brought an elegance and charm to the Committees and to deliberations in the Chamber, as well as her expertise. I shall miss her greatly. I know that she has undertaken her role for a long time. When I joined MAFF in 1997, my noble friend Lord Donoughue was the farming Minister. He explained to me about the House of Lords—to which I paid not the slightest interest—the pressure he was under and the walloping he was getting from this noble Baroness, Lady Byford, on various issues. I fully understand why she has stepped down, because she kindly let me know some time ago. I will try to answer most of the detailed points; in fact I will try to answer them all. The answer to most of the issues raised by the noble Duke is that these are the existing regulations. If there is an exception to that, I will delineate it. In other words, there is no invention of the wheel. Therefore, I can say with some comfort that the regulations are operating in a proportionate and common sense way. In looking at the words one sees that he has raised legitimate issues. They could be words transposed from regulations. If there is an exception to that I shall naturally come back to it. I shall work through the points in no particular order; it is just how I pick them up. Bees are not covered.