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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he plans to take to tackle livestock worrying in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (b) Staffordshire.

This Government recognises the distress livestock worrying can cause animals and their keepers.

The Government is supporting a Private Members’ Bill which will amend and update the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953. The Bill will modernise definitions and scope, strengthen police powers and increase the maximum penalty from a fine of £1,000 to an “unlimited” fine to act as a deterrent.

The legislation will apply to England and Wales.