Dog Protection Legislation

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 29 June 2022.

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Photo of Tom Giffard Tom Giffard Conservative 2:55, 29 June 2022

Minister, on that point about unregulated or poorly regulated sales, you might recall, back in October, I raised with you the issue of a graded or scoring system to be implemented for dog breeders within Wales, and you responded at the time saying that was certainly something you were considering. Now, new figures released this week by the RSPCA and Hope Rescue show that local authorities received almost 1,000 enquiries from concerned members of the public in 2020 and 2021 and, as we've heard from Sarah Murphy and Altaf Hussain, the number of investigations have increased by 63 per cent as well, and I think the reason all three of us have mentioned that is because that is quite a stark figure. That suggests that, whilst consumers might be becoming more aware of some of the practices by rogue traders, that is a cause for concern as well. So, given that, Minister, can you provide an update on what progress has been made in implementing recommendations such as these, as set out in the expert task and finish group?