Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of providing additional resources to local police forces to prevent pet thefts.

The Government is committed to recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers by March 2023, with a third of that target (6,620 officers) having already been recruited. It is for operationally independent Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to determine how officers are deployed.