Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the written Answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 108043 on Roads: Wildlife, if she will amend Section 170 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to reclassify cats to ensure drivers are required to stop and report a collision.

I understand the distress of owners who lose beloved pets and it is a great source of worry and uncertainty when they are lost.

There are no plans to amend section 170 of the Road Traffic Act to make it mandatory for drivers to report road collisions involving cats.

Having a law making it a requirement to report road collisions involving cats would be very difficult to enforce and we have reservations about the difference it would make to the behaviour of drivers, who are aware that they have run over a cat and do not report it.