Column: Andrew Jones MP - We are a nation of animal lovers

​The bill was primary legislation designed to tackle things like puppy smuggling, exporting live animals and banning keeping primates as pets. It was a good bill with good intentions and actions. But like all primary legislation it risked becoming mired in amendments, suffering parliamentary ping-pong between the Commons and the Lords and all sorts of procedural shenanigans. These would have caused delays – some potentially on purpose.

We need action. What we don’t need is a great bill, with which everyone agrees, getting bogged down in years of debate about areas where there is disagreement which some seek to attach to the bill in its passage through Parliament.

The Government is now looking at using what is called secondary legislation – that is broadening and enhancing existing laws– to achieve the ends outlined in the bill. It is better to do this than risk losing all the good things that were in the Animal Welfare Bill.

And it is important that we do implement those measures because we have, as individuals, as a country and as a Parliament, a really good record on which to build.

In the last ten years much has been done to improve animal welfare.

There are tougher penalties for animal cruelty because of 2021’s Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act. The maximum prison sentence has been raised from six months to five years.

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act became law in 2022 and recognises that vertebrates, as well as lobsters, octopus and crabs are sentient. Through the Act, the Animal Sentience Committee ensures that the welfare of sentient animals is a key part of policy decisions.

The Ivory Act 2018 came into force in June 2022. It bans importing, exporting and dealing in items containing ivory. It has recently been extended to include ivory derived from hippopotami, walrus, narwhal and whales in addition to elephants.

The Government also supports a number of Private Members’ Bills which are going through Parliament. These are not Government bills but they need Government support to become law.

These include the Shark Fins Bill which will ban the import and export of shark fins; the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill which will ban the import of hunting trophies into Great Britain; and also the Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill which will ban the sale and advertising of activities abroad which involve low standards of welfare for animals.

I am proud to have supported these bold and forward-looking laws and I will keep the pressure on the Government to assimilate those parts of the Animal Welfare Bill into law through secondary legislation. We are a nation of animal lovers and our actions in Parliament have shown that to be the case. There is though more to be done and we must make sure amendments, processes and filibustering don’t stop that progress.