Thank you for contacting me about the fur trade.
My ministerial colleagues and I are committed to upholding our high standards in animal welfare. The Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare sets out Ministers' vision to introduce a range of world-leading reforms to improve the welfare and conservation of animals at home and abroad.
I appreciate that there is considerable support for banning all imports of fur products. Fur farming has been banned in the UK for 20 years but while we were members of the EU, we were obliged to allow it to be imported. I am aware that the Government sought views on animal welfare through a call for evidence and 30,000 responses were received from businesses, representative bodies and individuals, demonstrating the strong public interest in this area.
The Government is carefully reviewing the evidence gathered from both the call for evidence, as well as from wider engagement with the fur trade and other stakeholders. I look forward to reading the Government’s summary of responses to the call for evidence in due course.