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mysociety / theyworkforyou

Keeping tabs on the UK's parliaments and assemblies
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
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See whether there are enough votes on animal welfare to put them into a new voting records category #1686

Open MyfanwyNixon opened 1 year ago

MyfanwyNixon commented 1 year ago

User request:

I have just read all the details on your website, looking for animal welfare types of topics and found none at all. Have I missed something, or are you (also) not that bothered about animals?

related #1334

RichardTaylor commented 1 year ago

There should be a line in the voting records on this subject, there are votes to support it. It needs a little work.

There is a draft policy (collection of votes) on PublicWhip on this subject:

https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/policy.php?id=6794

At the time of writing it had three votes in it, one from each of 2017, 2018 and 2020.

This didn't get considered for the latest set of new lines to add as it was an old existing policy on PublicWhip. Ideally the vote in 2018 should have prompted a search for other votes to add the policy and a proposal to add a line to TheyWorkForYou.

https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/search.php?query=animal+welfare https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/search.php?query=animal+sentience

It might also be worth considering votes on trade deals and EU integration.

The question of if pet theft is an animal welfare issue arises; I suspect the vote on that subject should be taken into account.

Once that policy on PublicWhip is improved a proposal can be made to pull it into TheyWorkForYou.

When this is done the "topic" page on this subject should be updated to carry the relevant collection of votes:

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/topic/animal-welfare

Votes on the hunting ban and badger culls have specific lines on MPs' voting records and are flagged on that "topic" page, but they're drowned out by including all the votes on the UK's membership of the EU too.

A judgment would need to be made on if to include votes on badger culling and the hunting ban in a policy on animal welfare. Animal welfare is a key reason for banning hunting so those votes probably should be taken into account; badger culling is less clear cut, it's regulated with an aim of it being humane, and it's aim is to prevent the spread of disease to other animals.

I'm not currently working on PublicWhip/TheyWorkForYou - if I was I'd address this omission straight-away. It's not a major oversight/omission as there haven't been a lot of votes specifically on this subject, but there are now enough to warrant a line on the voting records.

RichardTaylor commented 1 year ago

Are matters like environmental water quality, air quality and climate change animal welfare issues?

I think they are, but including votes on them when making a statement on "animal welfare", and collecting votes on "animal welfare", may dilute the focus. It's probably worth reviewing individual votes and taking a judgment.

The release of untreated sewage into rivers and the sea probably is an animal welfare issue for animals living in those bodies of water.

MyfanwyNixon commented 1 year ago

Are matters like environmental water quality, air quality and climate change animal welfare issues?

I see the logic, but they're also human welfare issues so there's justification for keeping them under 'environment' IMO. I suspect that most people mean farm animals and domestic pets when they talk about animal welfare.

MyfanwyNixon commented 1 year ago

I've edited to correct the related ticket number in my original post - it had a typo in it.