Regulation will lead to more regulation, deputy warns

The Environment & Infrastructure Committee last week asked members to approve updated laws relating to animal welfare and veterinary surgery which were approved by the States in July last year.

Two laws were approved, one on animal welfare and a second involving veterinary surgery, which saw Sasha Kazantseva-Miller questioning the volume of regulation, and seeking to broaden the discussion.

‘More regulation leads to more regulation, so while I’ll be voting for this because that’s what we voted for, I did want to highlight the secondary impact of building a regulatory function within government which allows us to start regulating further,’ she said.

‘The more we regulate, the only way is up, and that’s the implications of bringing regulations for everything.’

Deputy John Gollop said that when the original proposals were approved ‘perhaps we went quite far’, and he thought there were other ways of policing animal welfare.

While legislation was important, it ‘needed to be administered in a proportionate way’, he said.

Things were a bit different, particularly financially, when the changes to the law were first voted for, said Deputy John Dyke, and he thought Deputy Kazantseva-Miller had made a good point. He wondered if this change was needed now, and said he would not be voting for it.

E&I president Lindsay de Sausmarez reminded members that there was a ‘hard-nosed economic facet’ to the changes – meeting international standards to promote economic growth.

She said that the island had a number of free trade agreements, and was also party to a number of international conventions which included the need to make commitments on animal welfare.

The updated law was approved by 34 votes to four, with Deputies John Dyke, Mark Helyar, Chris Le Tissier and Victoria Oliver voting against.