DEFRA Policy & Action Plan for Animal Welfare

In recent months, the UK Government has proposed a number of policy or legislative changes that could impact farmed animals. The impact of these proposals could be positive or negative.

We welcome developments that will better protect the interests of farmed animals and we endeavour to provide constructive input into such proposals where the opportunity arises to do so. We are naturally concerned about any proposals that may damage or reduce existing legal protections and will do what we can to deter the passage of regressive legal or policy measures.

DEFRA has also recently introduced an Action Plan for Animal Welfare, which is the first document of its kind. We are pleased that the Government appears to be treating animal welfare as a serious public policy issue. However, the devil will be in the detail. We have revisited our strategic priorities in order to include this as a discrete item. We will be monitoring developments closely and providing our input, analysis and commentary as appropriate.

If you have any questions for us about this priority area, email [email protected].