The Government has now taken action to lift the ban on beak trimming due to come into force at the beginning of 2011.
Agriculture Minister Jim Paice announced the Government’s move during a speech at the Egg and Poultry Industry Conference (EPIC), when the Minister said that the necessary regulation was being laid before Parliament that day. The regulation lifts the ban on routine beak trimming and specifies the use of infrared. But Jim Paice warned the industry that the Government did still intend to move towards a ban on beak trimming. It was looking to do so in 2016.
"We will be working with the industry and the Beak Trimming Action Group to achieve this, so I don’t want you to think ’well that’s five years away, we need not worry any more about it.’ I think you should worry about it. I think the Beak Trimming Action Group really does need now to find a way forward," he said.
The decision to lift the imminent ban will be welcomed by the egg industry – particularly BFREPA, who argued that imposing the ban at this stage could have worrying implications for free range egg producers. BFREPA helped to fund research at Glasgow University that has been instrumental in the Government’s decision. The Glasgow study concluded that infrared beak trimming did not cause long term suffering to the birds. The findings were considered by the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) before it recommended to Government that the ban on beak trimming should not go ahead at the moment.
FAWC made its recommendation because of its concerns about feather pecking and cannibalism. It said that the ban should be deferred until it could be demonstrated reliably under commercial conditions that non beak trimmed laying hens could be managed without a greater risk to their welfare than that caused by beak trimming itself. It is FAWC’s advice that the Government has taken in delaying the ban. Compassion in World Farming had appealed to Ministers to press ahead with the ban as planned in
2011.
Jim Paice told delegates at EPIC, "The Government would like to see an end to this practice, but quite clearly to ban it now as the current law stands would be very premature and the Farm Animal Welfare Council has advised me that that would be the case. That is why I am today laying regulations in the House of Commons which will lift the ban that was due to come into force on the 1st of January, because we realise it would cause significant welfare issues, particularly – and this is the issue that a lot of the welfare lobby do not understand – for free range stock. So we are laying that regulation together with a statement from myself about the Government’s policy on the matter, and it is with a view that there will be a ban in 2016."
The Government’s intention is that a review will be held in 2015 to reassess the position with a view to introducing the ban the following year.
Despite the Government targeting 2016 for the ban to be introduced, the RSPCA has expressed disappointment that Defra has not made a firmer commitment to that date. "We had been expecting a postponement of the ban, which had been due to come into force in January 2011. While we support the government’s aim to re-introduce the ban in 2016, we are concerned there is no concrete legislation to enforce this," said the RSPCA in a prepared statement.
"As the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) itself has already said - the mutilation of all livestock is undesirable and beak trimming is an insult to hen’s welfare.
"Infrared technology is the preferred method of trimming and we are pleased that this will now be the only technique permitted, but we need to end beak trimming altogether and as soon as possible.
"The society accepts that further research is needed to find the best ways to manage laying hens without beak trimming, and believes 2016 is a reasonable goal for achieving this.
"Regardless of the legislation, we are committed to the Government’s plan to make this ban a reality in 2016 and will continue to work with all areas of the industry to ensure this happens."
The Government’s proposed course of action will need to be approved through a vote in Parliament.
The Agriculture Minister also spoke at EPIC about the forthcoming EU ban on conventional cages, and he said the Government was committed to protecting United Kingdom producers from producers in other countries who failed to comply with the EU rules.
The British Egg Industry Council estimates that 29 per cent of EU egg production will be illegal when the ban comes into force on January 1 2012. Egg industry representatives in Spain, Italy and France, who together account for 39 per cent of EU production, have indicated that they will not meet the ban deadline. So have Portuguese representatives. And EU inspectors have raised doubts about the readiness of Poland, which has already asked for a five-year delay and been turned down. The UK industry is seeking to ensure that illegal eggs cannot find their way onto the British market come 2012.
"It is good news that, as I understand it, all Lion code producers will be ready come the 1st of January 2012," said Jim Paice, "but I am very much aware of the figures that were shown earlier and the problems, particularly in southern Europe. I have already written to the Commissioner saying the Commission need to get a grip of this and to recognise that it’s just impossible, even if everybody agreed to do it, it couldn’t happen in the remaining thirteen and a half months."
The Minister said that the Commissioner would be visiting London the following week. He said he hoped to tackle the Commissioner about a number of issues and one of those issues would be the ban on conventional cages.
"We really do not want to see eggs coming into the UK from those countries that have not complied with the ban on conventional cages. I am determined to do whatever is necessary to ensure that all of you who have made that investment, made that commitment for the future, are not treated badly because others have failed to do so. I am absolutely determined to protect you from that."
He told his audience that the team of Ministers at Defra passionately believed in the industry for which they were responsible. "We are an economic department – and yes we have many roles – issues to do with biodiversity and national parks and water and all those things – but agriculture and food is an economic activity and it must be seen as such – not as some quaint rural pastime, which is the attitude you might have seen from previous Ministers. It is a huge part of our economy. Agriculture produces the raw materials for our food manufacturing and processing industry, which is the biggest manufacturing industry in this country, the biggest employer of people."
If the UK stopped producing those raw materials, he said, then the manufacturing and processing trade would go abroad to where raw materials were being produced. "And they may not be produced to the standards we want – and some of the things I have touched on are very important in that context," he said.
"If we care about the standards of our food then it means we have to make sure that our farmers are able to compete, because otherwise, as we saw with the pig sector, if we raise standards higher than anybody else all we do is export the industry and end up importing food, often to lower standards."
He said the Government was determined to put British farming at the top of its agenda.
