Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the resources available to local police forces to ensure the prosecution of people responsible for dog theft.

The Government is committed to recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers by March 2023, with a third of that target (6,620 officers) having already been recruited. It is for operationally independent Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables to determine how officers are deployed.