Animals Act 1971 (Amendment) Bill

My hon. Friend is right, and I briefly hinted at that point earlier. There really is a problem here. The hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire has cherry-picked a small part of the 1971 Act, and we should bear it in mind that the gestation of the issue goes back to the Goddard inquiry of the 1950s, the Law Commission report of the 1960s and the Act itself. People have a different attitude to, on the one hand, what they should and should not be compensated for, and, on the other, the care of animals. The Bill raises a series of other issues, not just the question of liability for accidents caused by animals; it deals with all sorts of other stuff. It would be far more sensible for the Government to go away and think about root-and-branch reform, and perhaps even consolidation of all the different measures relating to animals. As we have seen today, during the brief discourse that I have been able to undertake, several pieces of legislation interact and potentially conflict—for example, in relation to the definition of a ““wild animal”” in the legislation that deals with the licensing of the keeping of wild animals, and the definition of ““wild animal”” in the 1971 Act. Surely it would make a lot more sense to have a consolidated definition across the board, either the generic definition in the 1971 Act or the list set out in the legislation dealing with the licensing regime.