Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the puppy smuggling industry; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Scott Mann - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
HM Government has a manifesto commitment to crack down on puppy smuggling and the low welfare import of pets.
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was reintroduced to the House of Commons following the Queen's Speech in May 2022 and will progress to Report stage as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill allows us to further protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into the United Kingdom and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to reduce the number of (a) dogs, (b) cats and (c) other animals brought illegally into the UK.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) works collaboratively with Border Force and other operational partners at ports, airports and inland, sharing intelligence to enforce the Pet Travel rules, disrupt illegal imports, safeguard the welfare of animals and seize non-compliant animals.
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was reintroduced to the House of Commons following the Queen’s Speech in May 2022 and will progress to Report stage as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill allows us to further protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of illegal puppy farming.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
This Government takes the issue of low-welfare and illegal supply of puppies very seriously. Significant steps have already been taken to improve and update the laws on dog breeding in England to crack down on unscrupulous breeders who breed dogs purely for financial greed at the expense of animal welfare.
Under The Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 (the 2018 Regulations) anyone in the business of breeding and selling dogs and/or who breeds three or more litters in a 12-month period needs to have a valid licence from their local authority. Licensees must meet strict statutory minimum welfare standards, including provisions to protect dogs from being bred from too often or at an early age, which are enforced by local authorities who have powers to issue, refuse or revoke licences. Local authorities are responsible for enforcing legislation in this area, and records of their enforcement activity are not centrally collated.
The 2018 Regulations are due to be reviewed five years after they came into force (2023) and so this will be an appropriate time to re-examine the standards, the associated guidance and consider any changes. As part of planning for this review, we are proactively working with partners, including local authorities, to collate data that can provide a picture of licensed and unlicensed activities involving animals in England, including dog breeding. We will be working with partners, including local authorities and stakeholder sector groups, while we undertake this review.
Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, local authorities, the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) and the police all have powers to investigate allegations of animal cruelty or poor welfare (including power of entry to inspect premises). Both licensed and unlicensed animal breeders are required under the 2006 Act to protect the animals involved in breeding from harm and to provide for their welfare in line with good practice. A breach of these provisions may lead to imprisonment, a fine, or both.
In addition to welfare concerns applying to new pet owners being provided with pets from illegal domestic puppy farms, welfare concerns also arise in relation to imported pets. The "Action Plan for Animal Welfare" includes a commitment to address this issue and end the abhorrent, cruel practice of puppy smuggling and low-welfare pet imports.
APHA works collaboratively with Border Force and other operational partners at ports, airports and inland, sharing intelligence to enforce the pet travel rules, disrupt illegal imports, safeguard the welfare of animals and seize non-compliant animals.
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was reintroduced following the Queen's speech and will progress to Report stage in the Commons as soon as Parliamentary time allows. The Bill allows us to further protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to ensure the effectiveness of provisions the Kept Animals Bill on preventing puppy smuggling.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was reintroduced following the Queen's speech and will progress to Report stage as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill allows us to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain. This includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
In August 2021, the Government launched an eight-week consultation on our proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain. This included proposals to ban the commercial and non-commercial movement into Great Britain of puppies under the age of six months. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a summary response in due course. This will allow us to take onboard the views of the public and interested groups on puppy smuggling and low welfare imports in order to shape our future policy.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many meetings he has had in 2022 with his EU counterparts on making it easier for British citizens to travel to and within the EU with their pets.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra recognises the impact that changes to the EU pet travel rules applying to movements from GB are having on pet owners and assistance dog users. We are continuing to seek agreement from the European Commission on awarding Great Britain 'Part 1' listed status and recognising our tapeworm-free status. Achieving these would alleviate the most onerous pet travel rules for all travellers and we see no valid animal health reason for these not to be granted. We are carrying out further engagement with the EU to progress this.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing the Animal and Plant Health Agency to conduct regulatory checks on animals travelling with refugees from Ukraine immediately upon their arrival in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government wishes to ensure that people fleeing from Ukraine can come here with their pets, in a way which also safeguards our rabies-free status.
The UK has been rabies-free for many years, and we wish to remain so. Ukraine is a high-risk country for rabies and animals coming to the UK from Ukraine need to meet the health preparation requirements before they travel. In practice, this means having a microchip, a rabies vaccination, passing a blood test 30 days later and then waiting for three months before travelling.
However, we recognise that many people fleeing from Ukraine will not have been able to complete all of these requirements. Therefore, people fleeing from Ukraine can bring their pets with them under licence. In cases where their pets need to spend time in quarantine, we are covering the costs of this.
We have streamlined the license application process for people fleeing from Ukraine with their pets. Pets from Ukraine may also be eligible for home isolation in England if they are found to have rabies antibodies, subject to strict criteria.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of UK holidaymakers who take more than two dogs when travelling abroad.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill proposes reducing the number of pet dogs, cats and ferrets that can travel to Great Britain in one non-commercial movement to five pets per vehicle. This was informed by research and engagement with various stakeholders, including authorised pet checkers, carriers, animal welfare organisations and veterinary bodies, to determine a suitable limit that would disrupt the illegal trade abusing the non-commercial pet travel rules while minimising the impact of genuine owners travelling with their pets. While we have information on the number of pets owned by families, we do not hold detailed data on how many pets people actually choose to take with them when going abroad.
Asked by: Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to reduce the number of animals that can be brought into the UK in non-commercial vehicles.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
We have introduced the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill into Parliament. This Bill includes a provision to reduce the number of pet dogs, cats and ferrets that can travel in one non-commercial movement from five per person to five per vehicle, or three per person if they are a foot passenger.
The Bill also includes a power to make regulations about the importation of pet animals into Great Britain for the purpose of promoting animal welfare. This will allow us to bring in new restrictions on the commercial import and non-commercial movement of pets on welfare grounds such as: increasing the minimum age that dogs can be moved for non-commercial purposes, or commercially imported, into Great Britain; prohibiting the importation of heavily pregnant dams, and dogs which have been subjected to low welfare practices such as ear cropping or tail docking. Under our proposals volumes would drop further if animals can no longer travel into Great Britain if they are not compliant with these new restrictions.
The Bill was successful in obtaining a carry-over motion on 25 April and was reintroduced in Parliament on 11 May 2022 following the Queens speech. We are preparing for Commons report stage which will take place as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
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 plans to introduce mandatory visual checks on (a) dogs and (b) other animals entering the country via the Pet Travel Scheme.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We operate one of the most rigorous and robust pet travel checking regimes in Europe. All non-commercial cats, dogs and ferrets entering Great Britain on approved routes (every route other than Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies) under the pet travel rules undergo 100% documentary and identity checks by authorised pet checkers.
To enter Great Britain pets must have been implanted with a microchip or have a legible tattoo imprinted prior to 3 July 2011. A pet's identity is checked by ensuring that the microchip or tattoo details correspond to the details in the pet's documentation. Carriers can refer suspected non-compliances to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). APHA staff are highly trained to deal with intercepted shipments. We have no plans to introduce further visual checks.
APHA works collaboratively with Border Force and other operational partners at ports, airports and inland, sharing intelligence to enforce the pet travel rules, disrupt illegal imports, safeguard the welfare of animals and seize non-compliant animals.
The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill was reintroduced following the Queen's speech and will progress to Report stage in the commons as soon as parliamentary time allows. The Bill allows us to further protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of pets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made on (a) tackling the issue of dogs attacking livestock and (b) introducing protections for dogs, cats and ferrets being imported into the UK.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government takes the issue of livestock worrying very seriously, recognising the distress this can cause farmers and animals, as well as the financial implications.
New measures to crack down on livestock worrying in England and Wales are to be introduced through the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, which was introduced in Parliament on 8 June 2021 and reintroduced following the Queen's speech. The Bill has passed Committee stage in the House of Commons and will progress to Report stage as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
The new measures will enhance enforcement mechanisms available to the police and expand the scope of livestock species and locations covered by the law. Improved powers will enable the police to respond to livestock worrying incidents more effectively – making it easier for them to collect evidence and, in the most serious cases, seize and detain dogs to reduce the risk of further incidents. The scope of livestock species covered by the legislation will be extended to include animals such as llamas, emus, enclosed deer and donkeys. New locations will include roads and paths, as long as the livestock have not strayed into a road.
All reported instances of livestock worrying should be taken seriously, investigated and, where appropriate, taken through the courts and met with tough sentences. The Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill includes a range of ancillary orders available to the court following conviction, such as control, disqualification and destruction orders. These orders are aimed at targeting and reducing reoffending.
With regards to protections for imported animals, the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill also allows us to protect the welfare of pets by introducing restrictions to crack down on the low welfare movements of cats, dogs and ferrets into Great Britain and includes powers to introduce new restrictions on pet travel and the commercial import of pets on welfare grounds, via secondary legislation.
In August 2021, the Government launched an eight-week consultation on our proposed restrictions to the commercial and non-commercial movement of pets into Great Britain, which could be introduced under these Bill powers. We are currently analysing the responses to the consultation and will publish a summary response in due course. This will allow us to take on board the views of the public and interested groups on puppy smuggling and low welfare imports in order to shape our future policy.