§ 30. Mr. GrocottTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has had any recent discussions with the RSPCA about dog licensing.
§ Mr. BaldryMy officials have regular discussions with the Joint Advisory Committee on Pets in Society, which includes RSPCA representatives, on matters relating to responsible dog ownership and to the implementation of the package of dog control measures contained in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. We will introduce the dog control measures next year. They include a duty on local authorities to enforce the requirement that dogs wear a collar and identification tag when in a public place and to ensure that stray dogs are collected up. We believe that the measures will encourage responsible ownership and directly address the main problems caused by dogs; whereas a national dog licensing or registration scheme would be bureaucratic, expensive to operate and ineffective.