AQW 9015/16-21

Mrs Naomi Long
Alliance Party
East Belfast

Tabled Date: 09/12/2016
Answered On Date: 21/12/2016
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs whether she has given consideration to the continued need for dog licences in Northern Ireland.

Answer:

The current system of licensing was introduced in 1983 by the Dogs (NI) Order 1983 (‘the Dogs Order’). The aim of the licence is to provide a means of identifying dogs and their owners and to allow this information to be updated on an annual basis. Most importantly, and unlike in the rest of the UK, the dog licence provides income for councils for the specific purposes of enforcing the legislation.

The Assembly has considered the licensing system on a number of occasions in recent years. In particular, during scrutiny of The Dogs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, the issue of the licence and the licence fee was debated at great length and was in the end supported by the Assembly. The 2011 Act amended the Dogs Order to introduce compulsory microchipping, as well as increasing the level of the licence fee to better take into account the cost to Councils of providing dog control services, while balancing the cost of dog control between dog owners and ratepayers, who benefit from having well controlled and traceable dogs in their neighbourhoods.

In addition, the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee considered the Dogs (Licensing and Identification) (Amendment) Regulations (NI) 2014, which removed the need for coloured licence tags from 1 January 2015 following introduction of the compulsory system of microchipping. The level of the dog licence fee was also considered but a formal review was deferred until the new Council structures were well established, and the costs of administering the licensing system were clear, following Local Government Reform.

I am therefore content that sufficient consideration has been given to the need to retain the dog licensing system and that its continuation is justified by the benefits to dog control and public safety.