Parliamentary Activity - Kerry McCarthy

Pigs: Animal Housing

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Kerry McCarthy received a response to a question they put to the government

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of sows in organic farming environments are kept in (a) (i) outdoor and (ii) indoor farrowing...

Pigs: Animal Welfare

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Kerry McCarthy received a response to a question they put to the government

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of growing pigs are (a) free range having been born outside with access to a field throughout...

Pigs: Animal Welfare

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Kerry McCarthy received a response to a question they put to the government

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many and what proportion of sows are kept in (a)(i) outdoor and (ii) indoor farrowing systems and (b) farrowing crates;...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q I suppose the Bill is encouraging more humane production methods and so on, and the food strategy is making sure, at the consumer end of things and the marketing end of things, that farmers...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q Do you think that, in terms of the consumer side of things, that would be more an issue for the food strategy? I think there will be quite a focus in that on—

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q There is some quite misleading packaging. There was the whole issue of Tesco and its fake farms—it had pictures of cows frolicking in meadows, when they had never seen the sunlight. I am...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q Some groups are talking about method of slaughter labelling. Does Which? have a view? Would the consumers you deal with find that useful?

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Is that how it would work? That is the other thing. It is the same as with planting trees or improving soil health; there is a danger that, in a bid to use public money to encourage other people...

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q I am trying to tease this out, because we have heard previous witnesses say that there is concern about the lack of baseline regulation in the Bill and the fact that we no longer have the...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q We mentioned clause 17 on food security, which is new to this edition of the Bill. Do you think there is scope for an extra provision? It talks about looking at global food availability,...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

CouldQ we talk about peatlands? You have been very involved in trying to make the case for the restoration of peatlands and their role as a natural climate solution. Do you think more can be...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q Meeting net zero is a public good, looking at climate mitigation and adaptation. Do you feel the Bill could be stronger on that? My concern is that while in a sector like transport it is quite...

Examination of Witness

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Where to start? Could you say a bit more about the whole-farm systems approach and the concern that the Bill might lead to farmers cherry-picking some of the public goods, but not to a...

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q And the climate change thing, possibly.

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q Well, we probably do not have time to go into that. This is probably a question for Graeme, to start with, but others can chip in if they wish. I have two quick questions. First, still on the...

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q You have farmed game birds that are released into the world to be shot.

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q I thought that the whole justification for game shooting was that people eventually eat the birds, even though we know that they could not possibly consume as many as were shot. Perhaps we...

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q Did you just say that game should be taken out of the Bill altogether because it is a leisure pastime, not an agricultural pastime?

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

ThisQ is probably a question specifically for David Goodwin. What role do you see county farms playing, given that the Government and the Minister have in the past expressed support for...

Examination of Witnesses

Agriculture Bill

Kerry McCarthy made a speech in a committee scrutinising a proposed law

Q May I return to the regulatory baseline issue I raised with the previous witnesses? The RSPB was involved in the Institute for European Environmental Policy report published this week that...