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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many prosecutions took place in relation to dog fighting in England and Wales in (1) 2014, (2) 2015, and (3) 2016.

10 defendants were proceeded against for dog fighting offences in England and Wales in 2014, and 21 defendants were proceeded against in 2015. Data for 2016 is planned for publication in May 2017.

This information was obtained from a manual review of court case files that centrally held data indicated may be relevant, and as such has not been through the same quality assurance processes as for routinely published data.

These figures relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.