Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move this motion.

The Humane Trapping Standards Regulations 2019 implement the requirements of the agreement on international humane trapping standards concluded between the European Community, the Government of Canada and the Government of the Russian Federation. The agreement seeks to improve animal welfare standards by prohibiting the use of traps that do not comply with humane trapping standards. It requires compliant traps to be certified and identified for manufacturers, and requires trapping to be carried out in accordance with its standards.

The EU is a party to the agreement. However, there isn't any implementing legislation at EU level, so these regulations are required to meet obligations under EU law. The regulations will have an impact on five species: badger, beaver, otter, pine marten and stoat. Of these, only the stoat is regularly and widely trapped in the UK and is the only species for which lethal traps are commonly used. Therefore, the effects of these regulations will mainly impact on those who trap stoats.

Delays in bringing forward the regulations arose primarily from the lack of suitable AIHTS-compliant traps for stoat. This issue has now been resolved, and AIHTS-compliant traps are available. However, in order to give manufacturers time to produce compliant traps and for trap users to replace their existing traps, we have included a transitional provision that delays implementation for stoat until 1 April 2020. With this provision, we are giving manufacturers and trap users a clear signal that they must transition to compliant traps, whilst recognising that they need time to do so. These regulations will enable the Welsh Ministers to certify traps and improve the design of traps, as well as improve the standards with which traps must comply before they can be used, creating an internationally recognised benchmark for animal welfare.

The implementation of these regulations will result in improvements to the welfare of trapped animals by removing traps from use that have a lower standard of animal welfare. I commend them to Members.