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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will make an assessment of the number of academics that his Department commissioned to research the training of dogs with e-collars who had previously campaigned for an e-collar ban by (a) writing to the Department (b) signing a petition.

The concerns that e-collars can cause harm have been made by a number of trainers and behaviourists, the animal welfare sector and dog keeping organisations. In light of these concerns Defra commissioned a research study.

The Government is satisfied that the processes for tendering and considering bids, relating to the research on e-collars in 2007, were conducted in accordance with the rules on government procurement exercises. The Government is also satisfied that the resultant peer-reviewed Defra-commissioned research carried out between 2007 and 2010 is robust.

Data from the research was published separately in two different reputable scientific journals, which required additional independent peer review exercises involving scrutiny from experts in the same field prior to publication. This gives the Government further confidence that the results are robust.