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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of trends in the level of compliance among individuals offering pet services via online platforms with the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018.

The (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 regulate commercial activity in relation to selling animals as pets; providing for, or arranging for, the provision of boarding for cats or dogs; hiring out horses; dog breeding and keeping or training animals for exhibition. Anyone conducting these activities as a business needs a valid licence. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse or revoke licences.

Local authorities provide a statutory annual data return including information on the number of licences issued, varied and revoked by local authorities for each activity. Returns are published here.