I have a number of amendments about the animal welfare advisory body, so it probably makes sense if I introduce mine next, if noble Lords are happy with that. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, for that introduction. I was very pleased to support her amendments.
I have a number of amendments in this group relating to Clause 12, which lays out details on the reports that the welfare advisory body will be required to make in its consideration of an application for a precision-bred animal marketing authorisation. It states that the welfare advisory body will have to determine whether the notifier, in its animal welfare declaration, has paid regard to the risks to an animal due to a precision-bred trait and whether the notifier has taken “reasonable steps” to assess those risks. That is fine, but our concern is that it does not have enough detail. That is why I tabled my amendments.
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We are trying to set out some of the processes and frameworks that we think the Government should be setting out in the Bill. My Amendment 34 would require the welfare advisory body to undertake its own assessment of the potential impact of a precision-bred trait on the health and welfare of an animal and its qualifying progeny. Part of the problem here is that without knowing much about what the body will be and what resources are going to be available to it, there is a concern that all it is doing is taking a proposal written by the applicant and making a judgment on the basis of what it has just been told. So perhaps we should be checking some of the evidence that has been presented to it, rather than just taking it in good faith. Our concern is that some people, understandably, will want to get their application through, so it is going to be presented in the best possible light; we believe that the new body should be able to interrogate that thoroughly and properly. We have to ask whether we can be entirely sure that any evidence presented to the committee can be taken at face value. If we did want to interrogate it more thoroughly, how do we do that? The Bill does not answer that question, so it is important that we draw attention to that.
My Amendment 37 requires the advisory body to assess the welfare impact on animals where a precision-bred trait is developed with the aim of achieving fast growth, high yields or other increases in productivity. We have heard in previous debates in this Committee about traditional selective breeding producing animals that are highly efficient and effective in terms of food production, but there have been concerns about the welfare characteristics of some animals resulting from this. So the question is, if we can take this further, how
far do we go? We think it reasonable that the body be able to assess welfare impacts as well, and it is not clear in the Bill how this would be part of the process. I am sure the Minister will reassure your Lordships that safeguards are in place that will allow that to happen, but we think it would be better if that was clear in the Bill itself. Amendments 36 and 38 add to that by requiring the welfare advisory body to consider welfare impacts on breeding stock.
Through these amendments we are trying to draw attention to any potentially unforeseen and possibly unintended consequences, which we think need to be addressed properly through the way the body is set up. The welfare advisory body should be able to consider direct and indirect, and intended and unintended impacts in all circumstances. Compassion in World Farming produced a very good briefing on this issue which I am sure noble Lords have seen; we should take its concerns very seriously. It highlighted that the Bill considers the impacts on the health and welfare of only the precision-bred animal and its progeny, arguing that the experience of selective breeding shows that altering an animal’s traits might have an unexpected impact on the health and welfare of the breeding stocks that produce future generations. In its view, we should be looking at how we safeguard those too.
In addition, many of the effects of selective breeding have been unintended. We have heard about this previously so I will not go into any detail, but what we are saying, as has been borne out by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, is that the system we have created through traditional selective breeding poses a range of problems and challenges. This technology could exacerbate those issues and therefore needs to be looked at extremely carefully.
Clause 13 deals with precision-bred animal marketing authorisation. We believe the Bill could be amended to tidy that up, so we have tabled Amendment 39, which specifies that a Secretary of State can issue precision-bred marketing authorisation only if they are satisfied that there will be no adverse health or welfare impacts on the animal.
Finally, I hope the Minister has listened very carefully to my noble friend Lord Winston, and that he and his officials will take the time to look at the concerns he has raised.