Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of exemption applications to keep an XL Bully dog his Department has (a) received and (b) processed since the XL Bully ban was announced.

My Department will provide the total number of exemption applications received ahead of the deadline, as soon as possible. These applications are still being processed and may include duplicates, errors or ineligible applications. As of 19 February, we have issued over 54,000 Certificates of Exemption.