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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in reducing the number of attacks by dogs on people.

In 2014, the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 formed part of a wider review into tackling irresponsible ownership of dogs. That review resulted in several changes to the law on dangeorus dogs such as the extension of the offence of allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control to all places and increasing the maximum penalties for such an offence. Early intervention action was also made possible through new measures contained within the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime & Policing Act 2014, which came into force in 2015. These provisions have supported the minimisation of dog attacks on people.