Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Pet Theft Taskforce is taking to tackle the challenges of gathering data on pet theft from police forces, including the (a) inconsistent data collection and recording methods and (b) lack of specific data collection on pet theft.

The Government recognises the distress pet theft causes will consider the evidence and what more could be done to prevent these cruel crimes. That is why we launched the Pet Theft Taskforce on 8 May. Among the activities that the Taskforce will be undertaking is work with police and other law enforcement partners is to understand the scale of pet theft.