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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of whether there is a link between trends in the level of offences committed under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and trends in the level of offences of domestic violence in the last 10 years.

The Government is aware of research that suggests there may be links between trends in different criminal offences such as offences against animals and offences against people, such as the recent research by Malcolm Plant, et al at Teeside University.