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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending the neutering deadline for XL bully dogs which are not currently medically fit to undergo a neutering procedure.

There are already extended deadlines by which owners must ensure that their XL Bully type dogs have been neutered. Dogs that were older than one year old on 31 January 2024, must be neutered and evidence received by 30 June 2024. Dogs that were younger than one year old on 31 January 2024 must be neutered and evidence received by 31 December 2024. We are considering whether a further extension to this is necessary. We will carefully assess the exemption scheme data on dogs that remain to be neutered to inform our decision.