Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2008

Perhaps I may follow the comments made by my noble friend Lord Soulsby. If I heard correctly, the Minister said that a lot of wing-tagging may be done by conservation bodies and that he had not received representations from either the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons or the BVA expressing any concerns. I should like to seek clarification on that point. Secondly, my noble friend referred to alpacas and llamas. Have the Government changed their view on making a list of places where alpacas and llamas are actually being kept? Some of them are in quite big herds and clearly their welfare is a concern to us all. I should hate us to pass regulations and then say, ““My goodness, why did we not think of that at the time?””. I should like a little more explanation on the position of alpacas and llamas. Thirdly, going slightly wider and with no wish to be difficult, can the Minister bring me up to date on the question of the ear-tagging of sheep generally and what progress is or is not being made on electronic tagging?