Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2020 to Question 105600 on dangerous dogs, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a standardised method of recording non-assistance dog attacks across all police forces in England.

When setting national standard methods for classifying crimes reported to the police the benefits of consistent recording need to be balanced against other considerations. In this instance the Home Office has judged it better to allow local flexibility to manage incident recording in a manner most suitable to local needs. This allows police forces to develop the most appropriate approach to understand and respond to local issues.