Animal Welfare (Service Animals) Bill (First sitting)

John Spellar Excerpts

Wednesday 16th January 2019 Public Bill Committees

[Sir Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire) (Con)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship again, Ms Buck. I know that you will keep us in good order. Thank you very much indeed for allowing Finn, the most decorated police dog in the land, to be here in Committee today.

I thank the hon. Members who have been selected for the Committee. They have all been great supporters of this small but important change in the law. I also thank all those who have campaigned for it, including PC Dave Wardell, Sarah Dixon of the Finn’s law campaign, the many animal charities that have given support, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is represented here today, the media—support for Finn’s law has united The Sun and the Daily Mirror—and every police and crime commissioner in the country. I am grateful, to you, Ms Buck, for agreeing that Finn can sit in, accompanied by PC Wardell.

The Bill, which received its Second Reading on 6 July last year, arises from events that I explained to the House in a ten-minute rule Bill application on 5 December 2017. My constituent, PC Dave Wardell, is a police dog handler from Buntingford, where he lives with his family, Finn, and other dogs. Finn has of course now retired, but on Wednesday 5 October 2016 PC Wardell and Finn were on duty in Stevenage. I am pleased that my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage, who has been so supportive, is here today.

PC Wardell and Finn were called to a suspected robbery. They followed the suspect, who ran off. He was found hiding in a garden. A light suddenly came on, revealing him. PC Wardell called on him to stop, but the suspect jumped to try to get over a fence, and Finn took hold of his lower leg. The man lunged at Finn with a hunting knife with a 10-inch blade and stabbed Finn right through the chest. He then turned his attention to PC Wardell, and Finn intervened to save the police constable as the blade was aimed towards his face. Finn put himself in the way to save the officer and PC Wardell received a hand wound, but the dog received further serious injuries. PC Wardell believes that Finn saved his life.

As other officers arrived the suspect was apprehended, but Finn was badly injured and bleeding. He was taken to the vet, and then to a specialist vet. He was in terrible shape, with his lungs punctured in four places, yet he was still licking his handler’s hand wound. Finn had a four-hour operation to save his life. The vet commented on the strength and bravery of this dog. PC Wardell slept downstairs with Finn for the next four weeks. I think we are all pleased that Finn made a remarkable recovery. After 11 weeks Finn was ready to go back to work and with PC Wardell he went on their first shift on 22 December 2016. On that occasion—their first outing after the incident—they arrested a fleeing suspect.

Finn is one of the most successful police dogs in the country and is renowned in Hertfordshire. He has won national awards for his bravery, including animal of the year in the IFAW Animal Action awards, hero animal of the year in the Animal Hero awards and the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals gold medal, which is known as the animals’ George Cross. However, when it came to charging the offender it became clear that there is a problem with the law. For the assault on the officer there was the obvious offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but there were only two potential charges for the injuries to Finn himself: causing unnecessary suffering to an animal, under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, or section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971. Neither offence properly provides for the criminality involved in the attack on Finn.

In the event, the charge was criminal damage, but that treated Finn as though he was simply a piece of damaged police property, like a police radio or something of the sort. The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, my right hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd), told me in a letter that it is unpalatable to think of police animals simply as equipment. Criminal damage is an offence for which the penalty is largely determined by the value of the damaged property—a seven-year-old police dog close to retirement is not worth much money—and so it proved at court, where no separate penalty was imposed on Finn’s attacker for the attack on the dog.

The offence under section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 is potentially a better route, but it has two problems at the moment. The first is that the maximum penalty is only six months’ imprisonment. After a consultation, which I think was partly based on what happened to Finn, the Government have committed to increase the maximum penalty to five years’ imprisonment. That still leaves the other issue, which is that there is a difficulty with the application of section 4(3)(c)(ii) of the Animal Welfare Act. Various factors must be taken into account in deciding whether the infliction of suffering to an animal can be considered unnecessary, including protection of a person or property. There is currently no reference at all in the Act to the particular role of service animals.

Clearly, the mission of a service animal is to restrain a suspect or use its physical presence to support the actions of an officer in accordance with his or her duty, but there is no reference to that role in the Act. We have heard from police dog handlers, prosecutors and all the police and crime commissioners in the country that there is concern that that provision allows defendants to argue that they are justified in applying force against a service animal in self-defence, rendering the force necessary. That has been an issue in deciding not to prosecute for the offence under the Animal Welfare Act.

I want to thank Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Ministers, particularly Lord Gardiner, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove), and the Minister—he and I have a long history of considering animal welfare issues, going back to the 1990s—for discussing this issue with me at length and for supporting the Bill, which is the outcome of those discussions. This Bill follows the example of the Australian Animal Welfare Act, which makes specific provision for service animals. I could add that this approach is becoming the norm in advanced countries, and that is a good thing.

Clause 1 provides that the consideration in section 4(3)(c)(ii) of the Animal Welfare Act should be disregarded if the animal was under the control of a relevant officer at the time of the conduct, and was being used by the officer in the course of their duties in a way that was reasonable in all the circumstances. A relevant officer is defined as a police constable or person such as a prison officer, who has the powers of a constable, or persons in analogous positions. It also provides that Ministers can add to that list.

Clause 2 makes provision for commencement and formalities. It applies to England and Wales. This change to the law, when taken together with the Government’s increase in the animal welfare penalty, will mean that there is, for the first time, suitable protection for service animals and a proper sentence for offenders.

Service animals such as Finn do a great job. There are 1,200 police dogs in service at any one time, and there should be proper recognition in the law of their vital role.

[John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

Before the right hon. and learned Gentleman finishes, may I, on behalf of many colleagues—not just those on the Committee—commend him not only for introducing this Bill but for the tenacity with which he has finally brought it to Committee? I hope, now that we have reached this stage, that it will speedily move through our House and the House of Lords.

[Sir Oliver Heald]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that. Sometimes the House can come together and do good things, and this is an example of that. Perhaps we will see other examples before too long. I thank him and I commend the Bill and clauses 1 and 2 to the Committee.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Rutley]

I pay sincere tribute to the right hon. Gentleman for all his hard work—I hope he is pleased that we will not only back the important Finn’s law but take further strides towards making the legislation more impactful—and congratulate everyone involved.

Finn’s name is rightly associated with the Bill; it exemplifies the bravery of service dogs. The Government recognise that service animals do a fantastic job, an invaluable service that might take them into extremely dangerous situations. The best protection for them needs to be made clear in law, which is why we support Finn’s law and the campaign today.

As we have heard, in 2016 Finn was stabbed by an assailant when he assisted his handler, PC Dave Wardell, in the apprehension of a suspected offender. Finn received serious injuries but survived and even returned to duty before later retiring. He received all sorts of plaudits for his amazing and courageous work. In August 2018 the Secretary of State had the pleasure of meeting Finn and PC Wardell on a visit to Marsham Street. All the officials there were in awe and I have been told stories about how impressed they were to meet Finn. We can all agree with what the Secretary of State said at the time:

“Every day service animals dedicate their lives to keeping us safe, and they deserve strong protections in law. We will continue working with Sir Oliver Heald MP and the Finn’s Law campaign to achieve this.”

That is exactly what we do today.

When the Bill becomes law, animals such as Finn will have more protection from callous individuals, because it amends the Animal Welfare Act 2006—the architect of which is in the Committee—to make it clear that the ability for someone to claim that they were acting in self-defence when they attack a service animal should be disregarded in such circumstances. No longer will someone be able to inflict pain and suffering on much loved and heroic service animals, such as police dogs like Finn, police horses or animals supporting the prison service, and to say that they were simply protecting themselves.

In supporting the Bill, we agree with my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North East Hertfordshire that prosecuting attacks on police and other support animals, which cause unnecessary suffering, under section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, could be made more difficult by the court having to consider whether the defendant acted in fear of harm. Relevant here is the list of considerations in section 4(3) for the court to consider whether the suffering was caused for a legitimate purpose, such as to protect a person, property or another animal. In other words, the perpetrator of the attack on a service animal could use the provision to claim they were acting to protect themselves. As noted, the Bill amends section 4 of the 2006 Act so that this consideration will be disregarded with respect to incidents involving unnecessary suffering inflicted on a service animal that is supporting an officer in the course of their duties. That will make it easier to successfully prosecute people who cause animal cruelty by attacking a service animal.

We are taking further steps to protect our heroic service animals, and indeed all animals under our care, by increasing the maximum penalty for animal cruelty from six months’ imprisonment to five years’ imprisonment. Specifically, we will amend the maximum penalties set out in section 32(1) of the 2006 Act. That will include cruelty caused by attacks on service animals, which is the second part of the Finn’s law campaign. We said we will do it and we are doing it. We will bring forward the necessary legislative vehicle as soon as possible.

[John Spellar]

Given the delay in reaching this stage of the process, could the Minister and his Department get in touch with the Government business managers to expedite the Bill’s further passage through Parliament to become legislation?

[David Rutley]

We are doing everything we can to facilitate that pace—we are looking at various vehicles. On the question asked by the right hon. Member for Delyn about the situation in Wales, a legislative consent motion will be brought forward. We will do everything we can to work with the Welsh Government to facilitate that.

We are increasing the maximum penalties for good reason: as a deterrent to those who would choose to inflict the most abhorrent cruelty on animals, and to help to address comments from sentencing judges who have said that they would have handed down tougher sentences in the worst cases of cruelty, had a higher penalty than six months’ imprisonment been available.

In summary, a two-step approach has been taken, in large part in response to the Finn’s law campaign. First, this Bill has been introduced by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North East Hertfordshire, which removes the consideration in section 4 of the 2006 Act that the person was acting in self-defence in attacking a service animal. Secondly, the Government will bring forward tougher sentences for animal cruelty in separate primary legislation as soon as possible.