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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2017 to Question 66537, for what reason the numbers of dogs imported into the UK from each origin country, as presented in Annex A, do not add up to the number recorded on APHA's system of dogs entering the UK non-commercially under the Pets Travel Scheme, as stated in the Answer of 30 January 2017 to Question 62238.

Currently, the Pets Database holds information on pet movements into GB on approved routes gathered by transport companies. Since mid-2015 the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) has been piloting a parallel system to establish the level of accuracy of data available from the Pets Database. This has identified that more dogs are travelling under the Pet Travel Scheme than previously indicated by the Pets Database data, and this number was presented in PQ62238. Based on this finding, APHA is now working on a new permanent system to capture accurately all the required data without placing an unrealistic burden on carriers.

The information that APHA has provided in response to PQ66537 is a true reflection of the information that is held on the Pets Database, as supplied by third parties.