It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I congratulate the mover of the motion, the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (John Nicolson). Promoting animal welfare is a key priority for this Government. This debate is about the best means to end whale and dolphin slaughter. We continue to utilise our existing trade agreements—those that have been negotiated in the past—to keep diplomatic channels with partners, such as the Faroe Islands, open. The hunts are cruel and unsustainable; almost 1,500 Atlantic white-sided dolphins were killed in one day last September, more than six times the number usually killed in an entire year. We will continue to make points ever more strongly further to this petition. No suspension of a trade agreement would end the practice; it will be ended only by the action of the Faroese Government themselves. The UK has agreed trade agreements with 70 countries, including rolling over the agreement that we were previously party to in our membership of the European Union. We have reformed these deals with these countries, which allows us to deepen our relationships because they become bilateral relationships. This gives us a greater ability to influence crucial issues such as animal welfare. The Government's position is that removing the deal—aside from the legality—would be counterproductive; we are fully exploiting all the different channels that our free trade agreement opens to us, strengthening diplomatic ties between our nations. We have managed to obtain groundbreaking animal welfare provisions in new agreements, including those with Australia and New Zealand, which include dedicated chapters on non-regression and working together to raise standards. The UK will continue to work internationally to protect whales and other cetacean species, playing a leading role in the International Whaling Commission (IWC). We are also playing a leading role internationally in protecting the ocean ahead of the conference of the parties on the United Nations convention on biological diversity. As an independent trading nation, the UK is leading the world in improving environmental, animal welfare and labour standards more than ever before. Through our diplomatic channels and our free trade agreements, we will continue to encourage reform and seek to replace cetacean hunting with new, better and more humane economic opportunities for the Faroese people.