Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

I need not go on at length about the issue again, because I probably said almost everything that I need to say under my previous amendment. Clearly I support the sentiment of this amendment, but would like to add something on a subject on which the noble Baroness touched—the seemingly illogical position that the Government are taking by issuing a general licence for all bird markets. I think that that is their proposal under the Animal Welfare Bill, and it seems a backwards step. The Animal Protection Agency has briefed extensively on that. The proposition seems to be for a far wider general licence to be issued. In the light of all that we have heard, in terms not only of welfare but of avian flu as well, that seems a particularly bizarre move at a time when the Government, through introducing such a Bill, are trying to improve the life of companion animals. Pet fairs and so on are one of the places where welfare becomes much more of an issue, and—as we learnt to our cost from foot and mouth—when animals are transported to and fro and kept in what are for them very stressful conditions, disease can be spread. I want to raise my concerns under the amendment about the licensing of pet fairs.