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Animal Welfare Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for opening our discussions on the Bill today. We share her concern that so much of this Bill is left to Henry VIII clauses and hence to regulations. I want to put that on the record because I feel strongly about it. As we are discussing legislation on animal welfare, I declare an interest as an associate member of the British Veterinary Association. I think that that ought to be recorded and I suspect that other Members of the Committee will at some stage want to record their interests, too. The point that I want to raise with the Minister—it was not touched on by the noble Baroness—is that I presume that the people to be consulted within the remit of Clause 1 will be those with science-based knowledge. Obviously, a great deal of scientific research is carried out into when an animal does and does not feel pain, and I assume that the people involved in that research will be consulted. Those one would naturally consult would be members of the British Veterinary Association or the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, although there must be many others involved in this kind of animal research. In supporting the comments made by the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, I ask the Minister to say whether the Government have yet formed a view on exactly who is to be consulted and to outline for us what kind of scientific knowledge those people might have.