1 Introduction
Our inquiry
1. On 9 April 2013, the Government published
the Draft Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Bill and invited us to conduct
pre-legislative scrutiny.[1]
On 9 May, it published the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing
Bill which included provisions to amend the Dangerous Dogs Act
1991.We welcome Defra's swift response to our Dog Control and
Welfare report, in which we called for legislation to be introduced
urgently to tackle the growing problem of irresponsible dog ownership.
We also welcome the introduction of new measures, given wide concern
about the adequacy of the Government's proposals to tackle out-of-control
dogs set out in our report in February, and we discuss below points
which remain to be clarified in the Bill.
2. We were disappointed that
the Government published a Bill including dangerous dogs measures
without waiting for the Committee to publish this report on the
draft Bill only a matter of days later. When asking us to conduct
scrutiny of the draft Bill, Defra requested a response within
only eight sitting days. We informed the Department that this
deadline was an impossible one to meet; it did not provide an
adequate opportunity for pre-legislative scrutiny, and Defra should
not use this Bill as an example of such scrutiny. Subsequently,
the House Prorogued earlier than anticipated which meant that
the Committee was unable to meet to agree its report until after
the House returned on 8 May. We are reporting at the very earliest
opportunity but Defra must in future allow sufficient time for
proper scrutiny of draft legislation. We expect the Government
to put down appropriate amendments during passage of the Bill
to reflect the recommendations in this report.
Case for action
3. Our previous report highlighted the need for
concerted action to tackle dangerous dogs. Dog ownership is increasing
in popularity in the UK, with some 7.3 million dogs kept as pets
in 2011.[2] At the same
time, however, a record number of dogs are being destroyed by
animal shelters and the incidence of dangerously out-of-control
dogs has risen. Some 210,000 people a year are attacked by dogs
in England alone, including around 6,000 postal workers. There
have been eight fatal dog attacks in homes since 2007 (six on
children). The most recent death, of teenager Jade Anderson in
March 2013 in a private home, occurred since publication of our
report and again raised questions as to the adequacy of current
powers.
4. This report focuses on the clarity, proportionality
and adequacy of the draft clauses in the draft Bill. These aim
to:
- extend offences under the Dangerous
Dogs Act 1991(DDA) to attacks which take place on private property
where the dog is permitted to be;
- extend offences to attacks on assistance dogs
as well as people; and
- amend the means of determining how dangerous
a dog is.
5. The first two of these were key recommendations
of our February report and we welcome the Government's prompt
acceptance of them. Our report also called for wider measures
to prevent and respond to dog attacks, but the Government has
made no commitment to pursue these either in its draft Bill or
in its response to our report.[3]
We address below the need for the Government to introduce wider
measures since, as we stated in our previous report, current dangerous
dogs laws have comprehensively failed to tackle irresponsible
dog ownership.[4]
1 HM Government, Draft Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Bill,
Cm 8601, April 2013 http://www.officialdocuments.gov.uk/document/cm86/8601/8601.pdf
(referred to in this report as 'the draft Bill') Back
2
Pet ownership statistics on dog news website www.dognews.co.uk Back
3
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Sixth Special Report,
Dog Control and Welfare, Government Response to the Committee's
Seventh Report of Session 2012-13, HC 1092 Back
4
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Seventh Report
of Session 2012-13, Dog Control and Welfare, HC 575,
Summary [referred to as EFRA Committee, Dog Control and
Welfare] Back
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