Dear Constituent,
Thank you for contacting me about the fur trade. Regrettably, due to prior diary commitments, I was unable to attend the debate in Westminster Hall on 10 March, which you can read in full here.
I appreciate that there is considerable support for banning all imports of fur products. Fur farming has been banned in the UK for over 20 years, and legislation prohibits the keeping and breeding of animals solely or primarily for slaughter for the value of their fur. Additionally, there are strict restrictions for skin and fur products that may never be legally imported into the UK. Those include fur and fur products from cats and dogs, whose import, export and placing on the market is prohibited.
While fur cannot be farmed in the UK, it is still possible to import and sell other types of fur from abroad. In 2021, the previous Conservative Government published a call for evidence on the fur trade in Great Britain, which asked for views on animal welfare and on the social and economic impacts associated with the trade. Around 30,000 responses were received from businesses, representative bodies and individuals, demonstrating the strong public interest in this area.
In the Government's Animal Welfare Strategy, which was published following much delay in December 2025, it outlined the intention to publish the results of the last Government's call for evidence on the fur trade, and to publish and consider carefully the report from the Animal Welfare Committee. My colleagues in HM Opposition and I will continue to follow any developments on this matter.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
