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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Pet Travel Scheme in tackling pet smuggling.

The carriers which carry out checks to ensure pets animals are compliant with Pet Travel Scheme rules are audited by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and the results show that they are performing satisfactorily. In 2014, APHA audited close to 6,000 pets. Of these only 0.9% of the pets were found not to comply with the entry rules. These pets were either detained until their compliance could be established, re-exported or placed into quarantine.