Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of pet thefts in the last 12 months compared to the 12 months prior.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Information on the scale of pet theft was gathered as part of the recent Pet Theft Taskforce and evidence included data from 33 police forces in England and Wales on trends in reported dog thefts from 2015 to 2020 and is available here:
Pet theft taskforce report - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The Pet Theft Taskforce estimated that around 2,000 dog thefts were reported to the police each year (2019 and 2020) in England and Wales. The Pet Theft Taskforce recommended exploring options which would lead to improving the consistency of recording and collection data on pet thefts by all police forces across England and Wales and government across the entirety of the criminal justice system.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for acquisitive crime has written to all forces asking them to ensure details about stolen dogs are recorded consistently. Operation Opal (the NPCC’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime) has suggested that forces across England and Wales are seeing a fall in the number of these crimes, and we are pressing for a further update on the data.
The Government is acting on the recommendations of the Task Force which includes introducing a new dog abduction offence which has been added by the Government to the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, bolstering the raft of measures it already includes to further protect pets, livestock and kept wild animals.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of the Migration and Economic Development Partnership with Rwanda on the number of small boats crossing the English Channel.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Successfully implementing our ambitious and world-leading Migration and Economic Development Partnership will require a concerted effort but allowing this deadly trade of evil people smuggling gangs to continue is not an option for any humanitarian nation.
Long-lasting change will not happen overnight, it requires a long-term plan. This arrangement with Rwanda is part of a suite of measures aimed at deterring small boat crossings and as with all policies its impact will be kept under review.