Thank you for contacting me about the use of antibiotics in farming. I know that resistance to antibiotics is a serious threat that could make ordinary infections fatal.

Therefore I believe we must not be careless about antibiotics, their presence in the food system and their effects on public health. I also believe all animals deserve protection, including on farms.

I will always support motions to improve animal welfare. As a vegetarian of over 20 years and a long-standing campaigner on animal rights, these issues are really personal to me.

We have a problem with antimicrobial resistance and its causes include the use of antimicrobial drugs in agriculture, alongside inappropriate use in healthcare and poor infection prevention and control practices. The implications of resistance to these drugs threaten not only human health but also animals, food security and trade.

In 2019, the UK Government published its approach to tackling antimicrobial resistance. It states it is committed to reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals and that there has been dialogue between the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and stakeholders regarding potential changes to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013. This includes the possibility of changes to reduce the development and spread of antimicrobial resistance. It says it is planning a consultation on these changes and anticipates new legislation in 2023.

More widely, I know some researchers aim to use new gene editing technologies to improve disease resistance in livestock, which I believe could be hugely beneficial in reducing the serious harm caused by the overuse of antibiotics, for instance.

Legislation is currently being considered by Parliament which would change existing restrictions on precision breeding technologies and would exempt plants and animals produced by certain modern biotechnologies from regulations on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) where they could have occurred naturally or been produced by traditional methods. Genetic modification differs because it inserts DNA from an unrelated species into another species.

However, I would not want to see these technologies used to modify animals to be able to tolerate worse animal welfare conditions and I believe the Government must reassure the public that these technologies are being used for the public good, and not just for narrow commercial advantage.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue. I can assure you I will follow developments on this issue closely.