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The elected government of the Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, has devolved constitutional responsibility for animal welfare and conservation including for legislation and policies governing the Cayman Turtle Farm.<\/p>
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An independent investigation in 2002, carried out in support of an application to register the Cayman Turtle Farm as a captive-breeding operation under CITES, a Convention for which Defra is responsible, concluded that the standards of care at the Cayman Turtle Farm were humane.<\/p>
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The UK Government has been in contact with the Cayman Islands Government more recently, expressing the UK\u2019s commitment to raising animal welfare standards and requesting an assurance that the Cayman Islands Government takes the findings of a report by the then World Society for the Protection of Animals seriously and be committed to making appropriate improvements. I am pleased to say that the Deputy Premier of the Cayman Islands, Mr Kirkconnell, gave that assurance in a response to the Secretary of State on 24 October 2013.<\/p>
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The UK CITES Management Authority has not made a recent assessment of whether the Cayman Turtle Farm is a humane facility.<\/p>
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By contributing to Red Tape Challenge, Defra has reviewed over 1200 of its regulations. As a result of these reviews Defra has made commitments to revoke or improve nearly 800 regulations and as well as a number of significant non-regulatory changes that will directly benefit business and the wider public. These include the reform of all regulatory guidance produced by Defra and its agencies by spring 2015, so that users can quickly access clear information on what they need; changes to data reporting obligations, to remove any duplicate and unnecessary requests for information; and plans to explore opportunities to simplify and reduce the number of compliance inspections on farms.<\/p>
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<\/strong><\/p> <\/p> These reforms are being made without reducing existing protection of the environment or animal and plant health and are detailed in a report entitled \u201cDefra better<\/em> for Business: A Strategic Reform Plan for Defra Regulations\u201d which was published on 9 April 2014[1]. Defra is working to deliver the vast majority of these proposals by April 2015 so that benefits can be felt quickly. Current estimates suggest that business could by then be saving £300million per year as a result of these reforms.<\/p> <\/p>