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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 15 July 2022 to Question 33729 on Cats and Dogs: Imports, if he will take steps to help animal rescue and rehoming organisations develop processes that meet biosecurity standards to allow those organisations to import cats and dogs from Romania whilst the ban on commercial imports remains in place.

The Government appreciates the work of rescue and rehoming organisations to ensure that unwanted and abandoned animals are given the opportunity to find a forever home whilst complying with our animal health and welfare legislation. However, this measure is important to protect our biosecurity and the health of pets in this country. We would encourage organisations which are temporarily unable to import rescue dogs, cats, and ferrets into Great Britain to provide help and assistance to animals in situ.

We are regularly engaging with the rescue sector on the impacts of the temporary safeguarding measure on the import of cats, dogs and ferrets from Romania and on options to mitigate the biosecurity risks.