§ Mr. Tony Banksasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he intends to take to establish a degree of consistency between local authorities charging for dog licences in the event of the transfer to them of licensing; and if he will require the money collected to be earmarked for animal welfare schemes.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThese are matters that will be dealt with in the Government's forthcoming consultation paper on changes to the present licensing system. In order to provide some measure of consistency in locally-determined licence fees, we have it in mind to propose that Ministers should be able to prescribe an upper limit on fee levels and issue guidance on other matters. It would also be a requirement that fee income should be used in the first instance to cover the local authority's costs of adminstering the registration scheme, and that remaining revenue should be devoted wholly to dog welfare and control activities.