Thank you for those questions. I think you raise a very important point about individuals becoming dog owners—that was the one you spoke about. I think it is good for health and well-being. I've attended the education classes that Dogs Trust run, for instance, and as you say, it's mandatory if you get your pet from one of these establishments. I don't think we would look at making it mandatory, but I think we do need to be able to publicise it and I'd be very happy to see if we could put it on the website.

There's nothing further I can say around microchipping, but I think you're right; there is a good case for looking at microchipping cats, so that's a piece of work that's being undertaken at the current time.

You asked about the code of practice for the welfare of horses. The animal welfare network group reviewed and revised that code of practice in 2016. We also had a 12-week public consultation on the revised one last October and I published the summary of responses to the consultation just last month. We will be revising the code of practice and publishing it before the summer recess this year.

In relation to horses, interestingly, I went out for half a day with the RSPCA and every case that we visited, bar one, was in relation to the welfare of horses. I think you mentioned education in relation to people keeping dogs and horses, and I've had those discussions with the Cabinet Secretary for Education, because we did look at whether we could put something in the curriculum, but you'll appreciate that the curriculum is pretty full. I think there is an issue around education, and again, we publish a great deal of information on our website and I always look at what we can do to publicise it further.