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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of introducing behaviour testing of dogs banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in order to reduce the number of dogs needlessly destroyed.

A dangerous dogs exemption scheme already operates under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 which allows the Courts to decide that individual dogs of types subject to the general prohibition may be kept, subject to certain conditions, if they are considered not to represent a risk to the general public based on the dog’s temperament and behaviour and that the owner is a fit and proper person.