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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when the current review into the regulations on dog microchipping and the related microchipping database systems will be completed.

We have completed the post implementation review of the Microchipping of Dogs (England) Regulations 2015 and published the report on 21 December 2021. At the same time, we published a research report from Nottingham University on the effectiveness of dog microchipping legislation that supported the review.

The review found that microchipping has had a positive effect on reunification rates and legislation is seen as an important and necessary means to achieve improvements in dog welfare by increasing traceability of dogs and their keepers. The regulatory review and the Pet Theft Taskforce both highlighted areas where improvements to the microchipping regime would be beneficial, notably by improving the ease of navigation of the database system and processes around keepership records. We are considering changes to the 2015 Regulations and will be consulting on these in early 2022.

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only.