Chamber and committees

Thank you, convener. I am delighted to be before the committee to discuss the LCM, to give effect in Scotland to some of the clauses of the bill.

The bill will make provision for the welfare of certain kept animals that are in, imported into or exported from Great Britain. The Scottish Government proposes legislative consent for the clauses that are related to prohibiting the export of animals for slaughter and fattening, animal welfare and retained direct European Union legislation, and the importation of dogs, cats and ferrets. It also proposes consent on amendments to the licensing of zoos in Great Britain.

The provisions of the bill that do not extend to Scotland relate to the keeping, selling and breeding of primates and the offence of livestock worrying. The Scottish Government has the devolved power to legislate for the welfare of primates through secondary legislation, and the Scottish Parliament has already legislated to improve the protection of livestock in relation to incidents of worrying through its support of the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on 5 November.

The Scottish Government recently committed to working with the other United Kingdom Administrations to seek to end the unnecessary long-distance transport of animals for fattening or slaughter outside the UK. The bill provides an opportunity to have consistent control over such exports and to assist enforcement agencies to ensure that such unnecessary movements no longer take place.

The bill makes provision for prohibiting or regulating the movement of animals into Scotland for the purpose of protecting animal welfare or animal health. Committee members will be all too aware that the importation of animals—puppies, in particular—involves widespread suffering and illegality. Puppies are frequently imported with fraudulent paperwork, underage and unvaccinated, before being transported and sold to unsuspecting buyers in Great Britain by dealers who illegally pose as home breeders. Reducing the number of pet animals that can be imported by individuals, along with restrictions on the import of young animals or those in late pregnancy, will significantly help to address those issues. The measures have been called for by many of the main animal welfare organisations, and the Scottish Government supports their introduction.

There are also concerns about the growing number of dogs that are being imported with cropped ears and other unnecessary and cruel mutilations that are not legal in the UK. The bill seeks to address those concerns.

The licensing of zoos has been applied consistently across Great Britain for many years, more recently under the provisions of the Zoo Licensing Act 1981. That consistent approach has worked well to protect animals that are kept in zoos, and I would like that approach to continue.

The proposed amendments to the 1981 act seek to introduce more meaningful conservation, education and research activities for all licensed zoos, through improved standards for modern zoo practice that have been developed by the Zoos Expert Committee. That will greatly improve the knowledge base in relation to many animals and contribute to their future care.

The Scottish Government fully recognises that for the measures in the bill to be successful, it must be introduced consistently across Great Britain to avoid unscrupulous importers and exporters seeking to change their point of entry or exit in an attempt to exploit any inconsistencies between Administrations, which they no doubt would seek to do, considering the high value of puppies and certain breeds of dog.

Consistent legislative measures across GB will also greatly assist when it comes to the interpretation and enforcement of new controls. A co-ordinated GB-wide approach to tackling the issues that are covered by the bill is widely supported and welcomed by many key stakeholders.

I am strongly of the view that allowing the UK Parliament to legislate for all GB Administrations in those areas is the most timely, efficient and effective way to achieve those important changes.

As I have said, movements are very infrequent and involve very small quantities that come directly into Scotland from the Republic of Ireland. I do not know whether officials have the exact numbers.

We can already do that in Scotland through secondary legislation. We continue to look at and consider the issue. The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has been doing work on the keeping of exotic pets, which shows that, as I have said, we already have the power to look at and control that. I should say that, in the legislation at the moment, it is not straightforward that it would be a complete ban on the keeping of primates, and I think that what the UK Government is looking to introduce through this legislation are powers that already exist in Scotland to allow us to give effect to that.

My officials might want to add to that.

Part 3 requires that regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure. If we make those regulations in Scotland, there will be an opportunity for scrutiny by the committee. If we also give consent for the secretary of state to legislate on our behalf, we will go through the usual processes for that. We intend to work with the committee and to keep you informed to ensure that scrutiny can take place.

The officials might have further information about how we arrived at those numbers.

There will always remain a concern. Even if we implement the restrictions across GB on imports of dogs, cats and ferrets—and I hope that doing so will significantly impact the illegal trade that currently takes place—we have to be cognisant that criminal enterprises and organisations tend to be behind many of those movements, and they will be looking for any avenue to get access. There will always be the threat that there could be exports or movements of animals into Northern Ireland from the EU that would then have access to Scotland. We will just have to pay close attention to that. I hope that, with all the measures that are proposed in the bill, the powers that we are given and the regulations that will come in future will have a significant impact on that trade. However, we will have to keep a close watch on that element.

Thank you for having me here to speak about the regulations. The draft instrument would amend retained European Commission regulation 589/2008 on the marketing standards for eggs with regard to checks done on imported class A eggs. At the moment, checks for class A egg marketing standards take place at the place of destination, such as egg packing centres and wholesale premises. However, for eggs imported from third countries, the retained EU regulation requires that the checks are carried out at the time of customs clearance. Given that the UK has left the EU, a greater number of checks would need to be made at the border. Therefore, the instrument would amend the regulations to enable marketing standards checks to continue to be undertaken on imported class A eggs at the place of destination, rather than at customs. The checks are and would continue to be undertaken by suitably qualified egg marketing inspectors prior to release for retail sale or mass catering.

The instrument would also enable checks on imported class A eggs to take place where resources are already established and where there is already expertise. We believe that that approach would be more efficient and practical. In reality, there are currently no imports of eggs directly into Scotland from the EU or elsewhere, other than infrequent and small quantities from the Republic of Ireland, although some eggs arrive in Scotland from the EU via English ports. For that reason, the UK and Welsh Governments are taking forward corresponding amendments for their jurisdictions.

I hope that those remarks are helpful in setting out the rationale for the draft instrument. Of course, I am happy to take any questions that committee members might have.

It gives us the power to introduce regulations that will help to prevent the importing of dogs with mutilations that, at the moment, are illegal right across the UK.

The Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has done work on that, too. The regulations will have a significant impact when they are introduced along with some of the measures that I have mentioned such as the minimum age at which animals can be imported, which were the subject of a recent consultation that closed in October, the results of which we are currently analysing. I hope that they will stop the importation of dogs with such mutilations.

Obviously, a consultation was undertaken when we were introducing the licensing regulations, but some of the issues that we are looking to address today came to light only when we were developing the guidance for local authorities and working with our animal welfare stakeholders. We have been working closely with them through this process and in developing that guidance. That is why we are bringing the amending regulations forward today to address those issues. Although there was no formal consultation on the amending regulations, we are in close engagement all the time so that we can identify such issues and address them.

Again, that is something that we would monitor closely, but I would say that the licensing regulations that we introduced and which came into force on 1 September modernised the whole licensing system. They made it more robust, so I think that we have gone a long way in trying to tackle some of the issues that have been experienced, but of course this is something that we will continue to monitor. As I said in previous responses, we are continually in close engagement with animal welfare stakeholders, so, if other issues emerge that we need to consider, we will, of course, look to do that.