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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of establishing a single pet microchip database.

Database operators are commercial enterprises which offer a range of services and provide choice for pet owners. We are confident that improvements can be made to the current regime.

We are exploring the possibility of creating a single point of access to compliant databases for authorised users, such as vets, police and local authorities.

We will come forward with our proposals shortly.

This is a devolved matter and these developments relate to the situation applying in England.