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 has taken to tackle abuse of the Pet Travel scheme.

We take evidence of the illegal importation of pets very seriously. The action we are taking to tackle this trade is focused on three areas.

Firstly, responsibility for stopping the illegal movement of puppies begins in the country where they are born, and we will continue to raise instances of abuse of the pet travel scheme with the relevant countries.

Secondly, we are maintaining effective border controls. The UK carries out more checks on pets at the border than most other EU Member States and stringent penalties are in place where people are found to be breaking the rules.

Thirdly, the illegal trade is driven by demand for cheap, pedigree puppies and we have published guidance on the steps pet owners can take to avoid buying an illegally imported pet. https://www.gov.uk/buying-a-cat-or-dog

Recent changes to the EU pet travel scheme introduced measures designed to improve the security of the regime and the traceability of the pet passport. A new minimum age of 12 weeks for rabies vaccination has also been introduced, which means that pet animals from EU countries must be at least 15 weeks old to enter the UK.