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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to raise the minimum age at which a dog bred in Northern Ireland can enter Great Britain.

Now the Transition Period has ended, the Government has the opportunity to manage our own pet travel and commercial importation rules. The Government has listened to the concerns of stakeholders and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) select committee and has developed proposals to strengthen our efforts to tackle puppy smuggling.

We will legislate to bring in powers which enable us to bring in new restrictions on the commercial import and non-commercial movement of pets on welfare grounds in the future. This could include increasing the minimum age that dogs can be non-commercially moved or commercially imported into Great Britain.

We are not currently proposing to apply these rules on pets travelling from Northern Ireland to GB, via the commercial or the non-commercial route.