My ministerial colleagues and I are committed to upholding our high standards in animal welfare. The Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare sets out Ministers' vision to introduce a range of world-leading reforms to improve the welfare and conservation of animals at home and abroad.
I appreciate that there is considerable support for banning all imports of fur products. Fur farming has been banned in the UK for 20 years but while we were members of the EU, we were obliged to allow it to be imported. I am aware that the Government sought views on animal welfare through a call for evidence and 30,000 responses were received from businesses, representative bodies and individuals, demonstrating the strong public interest in this area.
Regarding Retained EU Law (REUL), I understand that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ default approach will be to retain REUL as it is, unless there is a good reason to either repeal or reform it. This allows the Government to keep protections in place, provide certainty to businesses and stakeholders, and to make reforms tailored to the UK’s needs while removing irrelevant and redundant legislation to positively tailor our legislation to our new status as an independent nation outside the EU. The Government has been clear that any changes to REUL will not reduce environmental protection.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.