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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ban third party sales of dogs and puppies while allowing an exemption for registered and approved rehoming charities.

We are currently reviewing the regulations that control the breeding and sale of dogs following a recent Defra public consultation on the licensing by local authorities of animal establishments. Whilst there are no proposals to ban the sales of dogs by third parties, there are proposals to tighten up the standards of welfare that apply to such activities. We published the summary of responses to the consultation on 15 September and shall announce the outcome in due course.