23 May 2025: letter from Baroness Hayman, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State to Zoos Expert Committee
Published 24 May 2025
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Professor Simon Girling, Zoo Experts Committee
23 May 2025
Dear Professor Girling,
Thank you for your letter of 31 July, on behalf of the Zoos Expert Committee (ZEC) regarding ZEC’s consideration of the Elephant Welfare Group’s 10-year report.
On behalf of the Animal Welfare Ministers across the UK, I would like to thank you for the detailed review undertaken by ZEC assessing the Elephant Welfare Group (EWG) 10-year Report. We note that you sought a range of views, including from organisations who would like to see the keeping of elephants phased out in this country and from those who want to see the work of the EWG continue.
We have considered ZEC’s advice and are pleased that you felt able to report that acceptable improvements have been made in the welfare of elephants in UK zoos. We also note that ZEC and most of the consultees do not consider at this stage that there is sufficient evidence in the report to propose the phasing out of keeping elephants in the UK. Therefore, we are content to follow ZEC’s advice and consider other options available to continue the progress towards further improving the welfare of elephants in our zoos. We accept there are still some outstanding key issues which we should seek to address.
We agree that we should:
- Seek to revise the specific elephant standards in the Standards of Modern Zoo Practice for Great Britain, taking into account expert advice and the responses to the 2022 consultation.
- Seek to require each zoo to have an elephant improvement action plan, to include details of how they intend to meet the new zoo regulatory standards well ahead of when they come into force.
- Seek to require inspection and assessment of these plans and their implementation by zoo licensing inspectors in line with the frequency required by the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 (ZLA).
- Ask the EWG to continue their work and report progress every two years to ZEC. This should include a focus on improved data and evidence gathering, including further developing the elephant welfare assessment tools.
In your response you suggested that ZEC could draw up a more detailed Action Plan for the work of the EWG. We would be grateful if you could now begin work on this. I will also write to the Chairs of the EWG on behalf of GB animal welfare Ministers to thank the EWG for their work and set out how we want the EWG’s work to continue.
Yours sincerely,
Baroness Hayman of Ullock
Minister for animal welfare and biosecurity