The government’s flagship Animal Sentience Bill is (slowly) making its way through parliament, with Monday afternoon seeing the Defra select committee take evidence from a range of experts. Steerpike has covered the proposed legislation extensively in recent months, detailing the concerns of peers about its plans to create a powerful Animal Sentience Committee which would judge the effect of government policy on the welfare of animals.
A similar bill was pulled by the then Environment Secretary Michael Gove three years ago after MPs noted it would open every government policy to judicial review. Monday’s session will have done little to assuage such fears after Dr Penny Hawkins of the RSPCA implied that the proposed new law would have prevented the recent Australia free trade deal. Indeed if the Bill is passed, the Committee may still be able to alter this agreement, given the current lack of any prohibition on retrospective reviews of existing laws and arrangements. Steerpike wonders how exactly this fits in with the rest of the government’s Global Britain agenda.
Those MPs on the fence will also not have been encouraged by suggestions about the committee’s potential composition, given the likelihood it will be animal rights activists applying to fill such roles and thus being granted a veto across swathes of government policy.
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