In the Lords

My Lords, No. 10 and, indeed, the Prime Minister have clearly and emphatically pushed back against any such suggestion today.

My Lords, there are no proposed changes to the animal health requirements of pets entering Great Britain within this Bill, as our focus here

My noble friend makes an important point.

My Lords, two years ago we introduced Lucy’s law, whose purpose was to tackle unscrupulous breeders in this country.

My Lords, enforcement is clearly key, but we did not propose increasing the minimum age of imported kittens to six months or banning the imp

My Lords, the proposal that we have put forward involves banning the import of heavily pregnant dogs for welfare reasons.

My Lords, an unacceptable number of low-welfare establishments provide puppies and dogs for the UK market from overseas.

My Lords, there is no doubt that, during the Covid pandemic, we saw a spike in the acquisition of pets of all sorts, particularly dogs.

My Lords, we believe that the network of agencies and stakeholders that work on puppy smuggling are doing a good job.

My noble friend might well be right.