As a Government Whip and Comptroller of His Majesty's Household it is my responsibility to ensure that all the Government legislation brought before the Parliament becomes law.

The landmark Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act will prohibit the export of cattle, sheep, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Britain. This Bill has the support of many animal welfare organisations and it delivers on our manifesto commitment to end live animal exports. This capitalises on the UK’s post-Brexit freedoms and bolsters our position as a world leader in animal welfare standards.

The Bill will also ensure that animals are slaughtered domestically, in high-welfare UK slaughterhouses and prevent the export to unknown and likely lower-welfare slaughterhouse conditions. These new rules will still allow live animal exports in other circumstances, for example for breeding and competitions, provided they are transported in line with legal requirements aimed at protecting their welfare. 

The Conservative Government has brought in new laws to recognise animal sentience, introduced tougher penalties for animal cruelty offences, announced an extension of the ivory ban to cover other ivory bearing species, supported legislation to ban glue traps and the import of detached shark fins, and introduced measures to ban the advertising and offering for sale of low welfare activities abroad. We have also achieved our commitment to deliver the Kept Animals Bill measures individually, with all of the measures that require legislation back before Parliament and the pets as primate restrictions already law.