As my colleague Gareth Bennett said, UKIP's debate today is about one thing: improving the lives of farm animals from rearing to slaughter. UKIP has been at the forefront of dealing with animal welfare policy. As a party, we have promoted high standards of animal welfare for livestock and domestic animals. Indeed, long before the changes to the law in England, my party was calling for tougher prison sentences for those guilty of animal abuse and a life ban on any individual found to have caused such animal neglect or abuse. We acknowledge that the UK has some of the highest standards of animal welfare in the world. However, as our motion suggests today, we can do more. My colleague Gareth Bennett has already stated that there is certainly room to improve the methods by which animals are slaughtered and how the Welsh Government can facilitate greater levels of surveillance to ensure best practices are always adhered to.

Point 3 of our motion addresses the issue of live animal exports. To give this some context, only 1.3 per cent of the total value of the UK's live exports are animals reared in Wales. Therefore, we can be sure that Wales's agricultural industry would not be adversely affected to any great degree if a ban on live exports were to be implemented. We are proud of the international reputation of Wales's red meat sector, and we firmly believe that animals that are reared and slaughtered locally under high animal welfare standards result in the best end product, which leads to increased consumer confidence.

In 2011, the European Commission reviewed its regulations on the protection of animals in transit, and it must be said that these regulations go as far as possible to ensure high standards of welfare by authorising transporters, establishing basic requirements for vehicles and containers, limits to the length of time in transit and requirements for authorised rest stops. However, the Commission's own review acknowledged that severe animal welfare problems with animals in transit still persist. There have been numerous incidents in the UK and Europe where welfare standards have been compromised, leading to injury, dehydration, exhaustion and even death of animals in transit.

Last year, a Bulgarian truck carrying sheep was left for four days with limited access to water and food, resulting in the suffering and death of a number of animals. And in 2012, a vehicle transporting sheep through the port of Ramsgate was declared unfit to travel. The animals on board were found to be sick and lame, resulting in 43 having to be put down. In the case that followed, the High Court ruled that the port could not ban live animal exports on the grounds of freedom of movement within Europe. Although these more severe cases are rare, they illustrate that no amount of regulation on transportation can completely mitigate the risk to animal welfare.

A further risk to livestock exported from the UK is that they're often transported on unsuitable ferries. This is due to large ferry companies banning livestock on their vessels. This problem was acknowledged by a National Farmers Union spokesman, who, in 2016, conceded that the port of Ramsgate and the ferries currently used were—euphemistically, he said—referred to as 'not ideal for this sort of trade.'

As the UK prepares to leave the EU, we have an opportunity to improve the standards of animal welfare legislation in Wales and the UK, particularly where it relates to animals in transit. It is not only in the interest of livestock, but also Wales's prized agricultural industry, to do more to safeguard animal welfare. Every year, the EU estimates that around 4 million cattle, 28 million pigs, 4 million sheep, 245 million poultry and 150,000 horses are transported for more than eight hours within the EU. These numbers illustrate the scale of the problem and a capacity for infringements to welfare standards. We, in UKIP, are utterly convinced that animals placed in transit for prolonged periods of time compromise those welfare standards no matter what precautions are put in place. Upon leaving the EU, UKIP will demand that the Conservative UK Government legislate for a ban, and we urge this Chamber and the Welsh Government to support us in this proposal.