§ Mr. BellinghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he intends to introduce new controls on dogs.
§ Mr. Heathcoat-AmoryOur consultation paper "Action on Dogs", issued in August 1989, put forward two main proposals: transferring the duty for dealing with strays from the police to local authorities and clarifying enforcement of the existing collar and identification tag requirement. We recently issued, together with the Home Office and the Welsh and Scottish Offices, a consultation paper entitled "The Control of Dogs". Following discussions with the joint advisory committee on pets in society about how the package of measures outlined in "Action on Dogs" could be strengthened, the new paper considers two ideas in particular: first, that there should be a specific offence of allowing a dog persistently to stray, and, secondly, that there should be a fixed penalty scheme for the enforcement of the collar and tag provisions. We intend to legislate at a convenient opportunity.