The Rural Economy

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:58 pm on 3 February 2021.

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Photo of Michelle Brown Michelle Brown Independent 1:58, 3 February 2021

Thank you for that answer, Minister. One of the rural industries that is protected at the moment by being allowed to continue is commercial puppy farming, despite the fact that the public want a third-party puppy sales ban. You have said numerous times that legislation would be brought forward to ban third-party puppy sales before the end of this Senedd term, but you haven't given a clear answer as to when. Time is now running out, Minister. As you are aware, unless your proposed ban gets Royal Assent before the next Welsh Parliament election, any Bill you made to ban puppy sales and kitten sales would not be worth the paper it was written on. In this place, the average time between a Bill being laid and it actually becoming law is nine months, so even if the Bill were laid today, we don't have nine months before this Parliament is dissolved. So, Minister, I have a clear question that it should be easy to give a clear answer to: are you sure, as you have promised a number of times, that by the end of this Senedd term third-party puppy sales will be outlawed and will be punishable?