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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what guidance his Department has issued to online marketplaces on the regulations that apply the sale of animals.

We are in the process of drafting guidance that will accompany the new regulations which will update the laws on the selling of animals as pets, including online. This will be available in due course and well before the new regulations come into force on 1 October. The guidance will be available to local authorities and all vendors of pet animals.