Scotland XL Bully dog: First Minister confirms Scotland will adopt new rules

Highland News & Media

Watch as First Minister Humza Yousaf confirms at the Scottish Parliament that the Scottish Government will follow England and Wales in enforcing new rules.

Transcript

00:00 In light of the new controls on the breed in England and Wales, which have come into effect

00:03 on 1 February, can the First Minister outline when his Government will reach a decision on this issue?

00:09 First and foremost, it is probably worth saying that the description of what is happening in

00:17 England and Wales is not a ban on ex-hill bully dogs. Of course, owners can still keep an ex-hill

00:25 bully dog; they have to make sure that it is registered on the exemption index and they have

00:29 to fulfil the other criteria of the legislation. When the issue was first announced, without any

00:34 consultation with the Scottish Government or, as far as I can see, any consultation with animal

00:40 welfare stakeholders, we committed the Scottish Government to engage with animal welfare

00:45 stakeholders and to continue to engage with the UK Government. What has become clear,

00:50 I am afraid, in the past few weeks is that we have seen a flow of ex-hill bully dogs coming

00:56 to Scotland, and a number of people are coming to Scotland to bring ex-hill bully dogs to the

01:05 country. As such—we will give further details to members of the Scottish Parliament through a

01:11 ministerial statement if the Parliamentary Bureau agrees next week—we will, in essence, replicate

01:17 the legislation that is in England and Wales here in Scotland. Ultimately, although we have

01:24 a very good system of dog control notice schemes and we take the approach of "deed not breed",

01:32 we have to respond to the situation as it currently stands. Therefore, we will do what

01:37 we need to do to ensure public safety. Further detail will be given by the appropriate minister

01:44 next week, subject to the Parliamentary Bureau's agreement.

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