The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill, which was introduced into the House of Commons on  December 4, will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain and is expected to return to the House of Commons for its Third Reading on Monday (January 15).

I have actively and strongly supported a ban on live animal exports over the past few years, including lobbying ministers for such a ban, and I am very grateful for the researches of local animal rights campaigners in support of my endeavours.

We are a nation of animal lovers and have some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world. Thanks to the government’s recent actions, we are building on our reputation as a world leader on animal welfare: the UK is joint top of the World Animal Protection’s Animal Protection Index.

The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill will strengthen our standards still further by stopping the stress, exhaustion and injury caused by the unnecessary live animal export trade.

For me, doing everything we reasonably can to protect and enhance animal welfare is such an important issue. It simply did not seem right, for example, that an unweaned calf could travel an average of 60 hours to be exported for fattening in Spain, resulting, no doubt, in so much stress for the calf.

It was no surprise to me that the 2020 consultation on ending live animal exports received more than 10,000 responses, with 87 per cent of respondents agreeing livestock should not be exported for slaughter and fattening.

I am pleased that there have been no recorded live exports for slaughter from Great Britain since the government announced its intention to bring forward a ban in 2021. Our Bill will now make this permanent, meaning that it will be illegal to transport livestock for export from or through Great Britain for fattening or slaughter abroad.

The RSPCA and other charities have celebrated this news and it was a privilege for me to work closely here in Woking with local campaigners who had spent many years gathering evidence detailing the suffering animals endure.

This new Bill delivers on a manifesto commitment and helps to support the government’s Action Plan for animal welfare. Since publishing the Action Plan for Animal Welfare in 2021, we have brought in new laws to recognise animal sentience, to introduce tougher penalties for animal cruelty, and to ban glue traps, and we have also introduced legislation on compulsory cat microchipping.

I look forward to supporting the government on these important matters, and particularly on the forthcoming ban on live animal exports. The RSPCA state that the UK will become the first European country to ban live animal exports and that is surely something we can all celebrate.