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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the report by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on greyhound welfare, whether they have considered introducing a centralised database to enable retired greyhounds which are no longer able to race to be traced.

The House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee’s report on greyhound welfare suggested that the introduction of the Microchipping of Dogs (England) Regulations 2015 should improve the traceability of greyhounds when they finish racing. The Committee called on the industry to be transparent about the destiny of retired greyhounds. The main industry regulatory body, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain (GBGB), maintains a database of all greyhounds registered to run on GBGB tracks and records when and how a greyhound leaves GBGB regulated racing. The Government does not consider that it is necessary to introduce a centralised database to trace retired greyhounds.