Dangerous dogs legislation

The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 gave Scottish local authorities the power to serve dog control orders, or “dog ASBOs”, and holds owners fully and legally accountable for the actions of their dogs even in their own homes. Similar laws apply in Northern Ireland and some twenty organisations have been campaigning for new laws to cover England and Wales. Following the Langley inquiry into dog attacks on postal workers, which recommended in November 2012 that legislation be introduced to provide tougher legal sanctions against owners of dangerous dogs, the government announced new laws in February 2013.

The Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 will be extended to private property, meaning people like postal workers and telecom engineers will have protection under the law. It will also introduce compulsory microchipping (from April 2016) to help when they are working in and around people‘s homes, improve responsible dog ownership and help identify owners of dogs which attack people and animals. The communications union CWU says that 70% of dog attacks on postal workers occur on private property. While the union welcomed the announcement, it has expressed concern about the lack of any timetable for implementing the new proposals and is concerned that they will not be as tough as those already in place in Scotland and Northern Ireland.