I have long supported calls for a new offence on pet theft and have voted to introduce such an offence in the past.

Most recently, I supported measures in the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill which would have brought forward a new criminal offence for pet abduction and introduced anti-smuggling protections for pets.

The Kept Animals Bill spent two years going through Parliament, with the Bill having to be ‘carried-over’ to an additional Parliamentary session in order to give it enough time to be passed.

Throughout, one of many points that I raised with Ministers was the exclusion of cats and kittens from the proposed pet protections.  Indeed, I raised this disparity with Ministers personally, but to no avail.

Not long before the Bill was finally about to complete its passage through Parliament, the Government axed the Bill entirely.  This was despite it having cross-party support, containing several Conservative manifesto pledges, and having already spent over two years being worked on by MPs from across the House.

Instead, Ministers said that the Bill would be broken up into individual Bills and introduced separately.  In the case of pet protections, however, the Government did not bring forward a new Bill.

The Pet Abduction Bill is a Private Members’ Bill, brought forward by an individual MP, Anna Firth.  If Anna had not introduced this Bill, the Government might have just abandoned this issue altogether.

Thankfully, that did not happen, and I am pleased to say that both the Government and the Opposition are backing the Pet Abduction Bill.  Indeed, the support is so unanimous that the Bill passed its Second Reading on 19 January without the need for a vote.

I hope that the rest of its passage through Parliament will proceed just as smoothly.  I can assure you that I will press the Government to ensure that this Bill passes before the next General Election, when all unpassed Bills fall automatically.