Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Official Report 599KB pdf

Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010

The next agenda item is consideration of a letter from the Minister for Community Safety on the Scottish Government’s plans for the control of dogs and a review of existing legislation. I refer members to paper 3 from the clerks.

Before I ask members for comments, I would like to put on record our condolences to the family of Jack Lis, in Wales, who sadly lost his life earlier in the week.

The control of dogs is clearly a very serious matter, and I am pleased that the minister has responded to our questions on what is being done to update the legislation in that area as a result of the then Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee’s post-legislative review of the 2010 act.

The minister’s letter indicates that the Scottish Government is committed to reviewing the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, with a view to introducing legislation in this parliamentary session. That is to be welcomed, but we need to keep an eye on the timetable for that.

The minister’s letter also states that she will introduce a statutory instrument to establish a control of dogs database. I believe that that Scottish statutory instrument will be considered by the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, because it relates to local government powers.

Do members have comments on the content of the letter?

I reiterate and endorse what the convener said about the 10-year-old child who was killed in Wales this week. The issue continues to be a massive one in Scotland, particularly for postal workers, so I suggest that the committee encourages the Government to introduce legislation at the earliest opportunity. I know that the Government is already involved in discussions, but I ask that, in particular, it involves the Communication Workers Union—and within that the voice of postal workers—in the process.

That is noted—thank you.

As there are no further comments, I suggest that we note the content of the letter and that the SSI is being taken forward by a different committee, and that we keep under review the timetable for the review of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Are members happy with that?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 17 November, when we will seek to agree our budget report and a number of reports from our round-table sessions.

We will move into private session for the final agenda item.