Current status: Answered by Jim Fairlie on 10 October 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to the regulation of dog walking services, following its public consultation on the licensing of activities involving animals.
While there was support among respondents to our consultation last year, concerns were also expressed about the proportionality and cost of such a scheme and about the capacity of local authorities to absorb and meaningfully enforce additional licensing requirements. We are therefore assessing whether less onerous and more proportionate approaches, such as registration schemes linked to codes of conduct, could deliver similar outcomes to licensing.