Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many investigations into unlicensed (a) dog breeding and (b) pet shops have led to a prosecution in each of the last five years.

Twenty defendants were proceeded against at magistrates’ courts for offences under Breeding and Sale of Dogs Act from 2012 to 2016. Of these, one defendant is listed as being a pet shop.

Twenty-four defendants were proceeded against for offences related to failing to comply with the conditions of a pet shop licence.

These figures relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same penalty is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.