Debate contribution: Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Debate contribution by Mr Andrew Muir on 1 July 2025.

MLA

Mr Andrew Muir

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

1 July 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5061931

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, which is progressing through Parliament. Before I do so, I acknowledge that the Assembly's Standing Orders state that:

"A legislative consent motion shall not normally be moved until at least— (a) 5 working days after publication of the committee report".

I am moving the motion inside that period as the Bill is due to complete Report Stage in the House of Commons this Friday. It is my understanding that, as the Bill is a private Member's Bill (PMB), it cannot be amended once it moves to the Lords. Therefore, it is essential to seek Members' consent today and, more important, not retrospectively. In order to take forward the legislative consent motion (LCM), my Department had to fulfil a number of internal obligations, including legal scrutiny of the Bill and impact assessments. Once that was completed, it was deemed that the most appropriate course of action was to seek Executive approval. In retrospect, a more effective use of time would have been to approach the Committee at the same time as Executive consent was being sought, because obtaining Executive consent took much longer than anticipated. I understand that my officials addressed that matter with the Chair of the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee during a recent oral evidence session. Nevertheless, I appreciate the cooperation, again, of the AERA Committee in facilitating the LCM. The Bill is quite short: it contains eight clauses, five of which apply to Northern Ireland. It covers two topics: the non-commercial movement of dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain from countries beyond the United Kingdom; and the welfare of dogs, cats and ferrets that are brought into any part of the UK, including Northern Ireland, from countries beyond the UK. It is only the welfare element of the Bill that will apply to Northern Ireland, but I will explain how all parts of the Bill will operate. I will begin with the non-commercial movement of animals into Great Britain. The Bill will amend the assimilated law version of EU regulation 576/2013 on the non-commercial movement of pet animals. Members may have heard that regulation being referenced as the "pet travel regulation". The amendments proposed in the Bill will reduce from five to three the number of personal pet dogs and cats that anyone can take into Great Britain from countries outside the UK. In effect, it will result in any movement of more than three cats or dogs being categorised as a commercial movement. This part of the Bill also contains an enabling power to permit England, Scotland and Wales to make regulations that would restrict the importation of cats and dogs that are below the age of six months, are more than 42 days pregnant or have been mutilated. The EU pet travel and welfare during transport law is contained in annex 2 to the Windsor framework and continues to apply in Northern Ireland. It is not possible to replicate those provisions here, as that is likely to be deemed contrary to EU law. I want to provide Members with the detail of the origins of the legislative amendments, in particular the proposal to restrict non-commercial imports of dogs and cats from five animals to three. The desire to change the law in Great Britain is a response to recommendations made to the UK Government by the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee. The EFRA Committee highlighted concerns around movements into Great Britain from continental Europe using English Channel ferry ports. Submissions made to the Committee suggested that traffickers would try to bypass commercial import rules by presenting consignments of low-welfare pups as their personal animals in batches of five. The EFRA Committee also heard that smugglers would try to circumvent puppy smuggling initiatives by presenting with a pregnant dog into Great Britain, again under the pretence that the dog is a personal pet. I assure the House that those are not scenarios that we encounter in Northern Ireland; the position here could not be more different. Northern Ireland has been a hub, unfortunately, for puppy trafficking, and that criminal enterprise has been an indigenous affair, and my use of the words "has been" is quite deliberate. Since 2020, my Department has taken significant strides to tackle puppy smuggling in Northern Ireland. Under the auspices of the Paws for Thought group, my Department has worked with the police, the harbour police, the two main ferry companies and councils to implement new processes to log, track and check movements of dogs through Larne and Belfast harbours. I saw that last year in operation, and I pay tribute to everyone who is involved in that. In the past five years, figures obtained by my Department suggest, dog transports to Great Britain have fallen by as much as 50%. While that is a sign of good progress, I am far from complacent. Puppy trafficking here is not eradicated, and there is always the need to be on high alert. The joint working of the Paws for Thought group members has severely dented the trade, helped to secure transport bans and led to successful prosecutions. With regard to restricting the import of cats, dogs and ferrets on welfare grounds, I will now turn to the provisions that will be applicable to Northern Ireland for which I seek the legislative consent of the Assembly. The Bill will confer a power on all relevant national authorities in the UK to make regulations in their respective legislatures on importing cats, dogs or ferrets that promote the welfare of those animals. In the case of Northern Ireland, the national authority will be my Department. The power will enable my Department to bring secondary legislation to the Assembly to prohibit the direct importation of cats and dogs that have been mutilated. The Bill will also enable relevant national authorities to outline the extent of the provisions that should be contained in any secondary legislation. Therefore, regulations could include the right to inspect, seize, search and detain but also the ability to exempt cats and dogs from prohibitions where specified circumstances are set out and adhered to. That will enable my Department to put in place processes to allow individuals or organisations to rescue mutilated animals, for example, to bring them back to Northern Ireland. The Bill also includes powers to establish criminal offences in relation to the importation of cats and dogs that breaches any conditions imposed. The draft provisions provide that the offences contained in any regulations could be heard in a Magistrates' Court or a Crown Court. Sanctions and penalties would range from a fine to a custodial sentence or both. The maximum penalty that would apply if an offence were sent to a Crown Court is imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or a fine or both. That is in line with existing parallel offences under the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011. Finally, the Bill will provide no powers to restrict movements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, nor will it impact on the UK internal market. It is already illegal to place on the market or sell a cat, dog or ferret with any sort of mutilation in any part of the UK, and it is illegal to have such procedures performed in any part of the UK. The Bill has been drafted to enable laws to be made to prevent those animals from entering the UK market in the first place via imports from third countries. In summary, I seek consent today to enable my Department to obtain additional powers to secure the welfare of dogs, cats and ferrets and to close off loopholes that allow the continued existence of mutilated companion animals in Northern Ireland. The Bill will not change the law directly here; rather, my Department will be able to lay legislation in the Assembly that will be subject to scrutiny and the affirmative resolution procedure. I hope that the LCM will enjoy the Assembly's support and, accordingly, I commend the motion to the House.

1,360 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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