Thank you very much.
I am delighted to be here to give evidence on the proposals in the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Bill. If the bill is passed, it will have an immediate impact in modernising and strengthening the implementation of the existing legislation to assist the enforcement authorities and ensure that Scotland’s animals and wildlife benefit from the best protection.
As members know, the bill is tightly focused to deliver the changes that are most sought by front-line enforcement staff, which require amendments to the existing primary legislation, with the aim of those changes being in force by next year. My officials are also working on a number of other initiatives that do not require changes to primary legislation. I hope that the committee appreciates that that package of complementary measures will address a wide range of stakeholder concerns about Scotland’s animals. The priorities that the bill addresses result from a close working relationship between officials and stakeholders with practical experience of implementing Scotland’s groundbreaking legislation.
Bearing in mind the increasingly busy parliamentary schedule, we are presenting a tightly focused bill that tackles the most important issues that require primary legislation. It increases the maximum available penalties for animal cruelty and wildlife crime, introduces Finn’s law and the power to introduce suitable fixed-penalty notice regimes in future and improves the procedure to rehome animals that have been taken into possession by enforcement authorities as soon as possible to protect their welfare.
Thankfully, the most serious animal cruelty and animal fighting offences in Scotland are rare—there have been 41 custodial sentences in the past 10 years. However, those offences, which are sometimes horrific, rightly attract considerable public concern. We have also heard evidence about the links to serious organised crime in some cases. The bill therefore provides courts with the flexibility that is needed to impose sentences that are appropriate for a wide range of offending behaviour.
We have heard evidence that, in some recent cruelty cases, the sheriffs have commented that the current sentencing restriction of 12 months might not be appropriate for the worst types of offending. The new maximum penalties of five years and an unlimited fine will provide an appropriate penalty for the worst cases of animal cruelty—namely, offences that cause any unnecessary suffering to an animal and offences that relate to animal fighting. It is worth noting that any other cruelty, such as mutilating, poisoning or abandoning a protected animal, could also be prosecuted using the new penalties if unnecessary suffering can be proved.
The new penalties and the availability of trial by indictment will also directly benefit enforcement agencies such as Police Scotland, the Scottish SPCA, local authorities and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service by removing the statutory six-month time limit to report cases for prosecution. That will give authorities additional time to gather all the appropriate evidence and to draft reports that are complete and considered in relation to increasingly complicated cases, which often involve serious organised crime elements.
I am proud to be introducing Finn’s law in Scotland. I have met Finn and his handler, Dave, as well as colleagues in Police Scotland and have heard first hand about the importance of the role of police dogs and horses. I have also been touched by their support for the measures, which, along with the other elements of the bill, are essentially the right thing to do and keep pace with other United Kingdom Administrations.
The intention is that the proposed technical refinement along with the increase in the maximum penalties available for all cruelty offences will make it easier to prosecute those who attack service animals in the course of indispensable duties. That will provide police animals with equivalent protection to that for animals that are not routinely used in situations in which an attacker can claim to have been acting to defend themselves.
The bill proposes to insert overarching powers into the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 and the Animal Health Act 1981 that will allow the future introduction of fixed-penalty notices through regulations. FPNs will be an additional enforcement tool that will provide additional flexibility to address a variety of future offences. FPNs could be used to deal more effectively with technical and administrative types of breaches. Although such breaches might not impact negatively on individual animals, they can be detrimental to the welfare of the wider animal populations, and it is important to deal with them to improve compliance overall.
The bill proposes a new and innovative approach to swiftly resolve the emergency situation when animals are taken into care to protect their welfare. It allows animal welfare authorities to make the best arrangements for such animals without the need for a court order. The new streamlined process will result in significant savings in staff time and resources for all parties, including the courts, and should speed up the process of resolving the often traumatic animal welfare situation. The swift resolution of the animal welfare issue will enable other agencies, including social work, to deal with any other related issues. We know that the neglect and subsequent suffering of animals is often a symptom of another problem, such as financial difficulties, bereavement, mental health issues or other illness.
The new process has been designed to balance the property rights of the individual with the need to halt and prevent further animal suffering, recognising that, although animals have a legal status as someone’s property, they are also sentient beings whose welfare needs need to be prioritised. The safeguards that are being put in place to comply with human rights obligations include the provision for compensation to be paid and two appeal processes: one to challenge the decision to rehome and one to challenge the amount of compensation. The bill introduces an important new power for payment of compensation to be deferred pending the outcome of a relevant prosecution, as well as allowing a court order that no compensation is payable if an owner has been convicted of a relevant offence.
The bill will standardise wildlife crime penalties and bring the penalties for 22 of the most serious offences that involve the illegal killing or injuring of wild birds and animals into line with the new maximum penalties for animal welfare offences. That recognises that wild animals should be given equivalent protection to domestic and farm animals from the worst types of deliberate harm. The penalties for 36 other offences, including those dealing with the disturbance of wild animals and their habitats, will be standardised and increased in line with the recommendations of the Poustie report.
As you have heard, there is widespread and strong support for the proposals in the bill. I am honoured to be responsible for introducing the refinements in it, which will make an immediate impact to assist enforcement and further protect Scotland’s animals. During the committee’s evidence sessions, there has been much discussion of other matters that could be improved. The suggestions included arrangements for better enforcement, developing empathy to avoid future offending, and possible new offences. It is useful for those issues to have been raised. I assure the committee that I will follow them up to see how they can best be addressed. However, many of those areas will not require new primary legislation. The bill’s focus is on the most important improvements that can be made to assist the enforcement authorities in dealing with existing offences without creating new offences or responsibilities.
I look forward to working with the committee as the bill proceeds so that the important improvements that are contained in it can be introduced without unnecessary delay. I look forward to taking the committee’s questions on that.