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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to improve the enforcement of court orders made in animal cruelty cases.

Disqualification orders, prohibiting an offender convicted under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 from keeping an animal, or having any influence over the way an animal is kept, can be made by a Magistrates’ Court. The police are looking at ways to improve the way such disqualification orders are recorded on the Police National Computer. Anyone who has concerns or evidence that someone may be in breach of a disqualification order should report the matter to the police in the first instance.