My Lords, I am speaking to Amendments 15, 39 and 45 in my name and that of the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville—I thank her for her support—and Amendment 47 in the name of my noble friend Lady Young of Old Scone, to which I have added my name. I will make some comments on other amendments in the group.
Amendment 15 provides the criteria for which policies are in the remit of the committee and for the committee to report on those policies while they are being formulated, while keeping the discretionary power for the committee to look at any other policies. As the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville, said, if we do not do that, the remit will become far too wide to
be manageable. The current text of Clause 2 allows the committee to prepare reports on any government policy that is being or has been formulated or implemented. While I welcome that wide scope, we need some organisation of activity. Without it, in the face of the overwhelming range of government policy, the committee may well struggle to take a strategic and prospective approach to its work.
Our amendment would answer concerns raised by a number of noble Lords about how the committee would cope with the potential amount of work. The policies that the Government should be looking at are ones that should be reasonably expected to have a significant effect on the welfare of animals, judged by the duration and severity of effects and the number of animals affected. Beyond those mandatory reports on policies within its remit, the committee could retain the freedom to report on any other policy that it felt might have an impact on the welfare of animals as sentient beings.
Crucially, our amendment would also allow the committee’s reports to contain recommendations on how the policy could be made to have a positive effect on the welfare of animals as sentient beings. At Second Reading, the Minister suggested that the committee would be able to
“encourage policymakers to think about the positive improvements that they can make to animal welfare—not just minimising adverse effects”.—[Official Report, 16/6/21; col. 1945.]
We very much welcome these remarks, but the text of the Bill needs to be brought into line with them, as Clause 2 currently specifies “adverse” effects being the subject of committee reports. Given that the Government believe, as we do, that the committee should have the freedom to consider how policies could enhance animal welfare, we hope that the Minister will recognise that our amendment would resolve this issue.
Amendment 39 is also designed to help to structure the way in which the committee would consider government policy with regard to animal sentience in a straightforward way by putting a duty on Ministers to inform the committee in a timely manner of relevant policy development. As I said at Second Reading, it is paramount that the committee can look at policies right across government. The Bill currently creates only a discretionary duty for the animal sentience committee to review whether a government policy has had appropriate regard to the welfare of sentient animals. There should be a mandate with a clear duty for a review of all policies that fall within well-defined criteria. A duty on Ministers to inform the committee would help to achieve that outcome.
Amendment 45 proposes a new clause that is essential to ensure that the Bill provides a functional replacement to the sentience duty that applied in law when the UK was a member of the European Union. We have heard a lot today from noble Lords about Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and its intertwined elements—recognition of animals as sentient beings and a duty to pay “full regard” to animal sentience in formulating and implementing policy. Although it was limited to certain areas of policy, Article 13 imposed a direct legal obligation on the EU and its member states to pay full regard to animal sentience. It was a direct responsibility on decision-makers, in the form of government Ministers.
3.45 pm
The Bill replaces this direct duty with two indirect responsibilities on Ministers: to establish and maintain the animal sentience committee and to lay a response to the reports in Parliament. This is a weaker set of responsibilities that effectively outsources the bulk of animal sentience responsibility to the committee, which can make recommendations to decision-makers but sits outside the decision-making process. Our amendment is designed to address this gap between EU sentience duties and the proposed replacements by requiring the Secretary of State to create and maintain an animal sentience strategy that prospectively sets out how the Government propose to have due regard to animal sentience, including any upcoming policies they intend to ask the committee to review.
This early notice will help the committee plan its work and encourage strategic, proactive working between government and the committee on sentience. The new clause would also require the Secretary of State to make an annual verbal statement to Parliament, reporting on the strategy and presenting changes to policy or implementation made in response to the committee’s recommendations over the past year. This will provide a process and framework for showing how Ministers have taken the welfare of animals into consideration when making decisions. It also allows Parliament to evaluate the effectiveness and the impact of the committee.
It is important to clarify that the proposed new clause would not increase ministerial exposure to judicial review. The Secretary of State’s responsibility would be entirely discharged by creating the strategy and giving the annual strategy progress report to Parliament. It would encourage a strategic approach to sentience on the part of the Government and allow for regular parliamentary scrutiny of that approach without increasing the risk of JR.
I now turn briefly to Amendment 47 in the name of my noble friend Lady Young of Old Scone, to which I have added my name. As she said, this is a small amendment but it is very important in helping the committee to be more effective as it would enable it to call witnesses and access information needed to complete its work. I ask the Minister to seriously consider it as we go forward.
I will now look at some other comments and amendments we have discussed today. Looking at what the noble Lord, Lord Trees, said in his introduction to his amendment, and some of the comments from the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, my understanding is that the proposed role of the committee is exclusively about process and it will have no direct influence over the substance of policy. Policy remains, as it should, exclusively a matter for Ministers and it will be no part of the committee’s role to comment on the merits of a policy. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s confirmation that my understanding is correct.
As we have heard, Amendment 16, tabled by the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull, and the noble Lord, Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, would limit the scope of the committee to the areas of policy covered by EU sentience responsibilities. It had some support from noble Lords but, as we will have no need for continued alignment with the EU now that the UK has left, that gives us the
freedom to widen our ambitions for animal welfare. We welcome the Government’s ambitious intentions in that aspect of the Bill.
I will look briefly at the concerns addressed by the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, in his introduction to Amendment 19 and those raised by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Etherton, and the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, in Amendment 31. I think the noble Baroness, Lady Deech, also looked at this. Again, perhaps the Minister can give more detail about this and reassure noble Lords that my interpretation is correct. My understanding is that provided the committee is satisfied that all due regard has been given to the ways in which any policy might have an adverse effect on the welfare of animals as sentient beings, the weight to be given to these considerations remains entirely at the discretion of Ministers in determining policy. Accordingly, provided all due regard has been given to adverse effects, Ministers may conclude that competing considerations outweigh those of animal welfare—for example, in medical science research, determining the future of religious slaughter policy and activities such as shooting and fishing. These decisions would then ultimately remain, as now, in the hands of government. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that I have read that correctly.
Amendment 37 would limit the scope of the committee to new policy proposed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This would significantly weaken the committee, reducing it from a body free to consider sentience questions right across government policy to ultimately just being a Defra scrutiny organisation. It would certainly mean that the committee would not be able to ensure that animal sentience was taken into account right across government policy-making, which is the stated purpose of the Bill, and would critically undermine it.
Amendment 34, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Howard, and signed up to by other noble Lords, would prevent the animal sentience committee from considering the implementation of existing law. This reduction in scope would tie the committee’s hands. The implementation of existing policy can have just as much of an impact as new policy on the welfare of animals as sentient beings. The greater the freedom of manoeuvre that the committee has, the greater its effectiveness. Crucially, Ministers will be able to disregard any recommendations, as I have already said. We have to remember that this committee is advisory, and it will still be Ministers who make any final decisions.
It has been a very interesting debate, and there is a lot on which the Minister can reassure noble Lords. I look forward to his response.