I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. He is right, and that is the point I was trying to make earlier. There has been a huge upwelling of anger and concern about the theft of dogs in particular, but pets in general. These three new clauses highlight that particular issue. It is not a simple thing or something that can be ignored, and it is quite interesting to look at what has happened to prosecutions.
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During the course of this period of lockdown, when offences have risen dramatically, only 1% of dog crime cases investigated resulted in a charge in England and Wales—1%. In 2019, only 19 dog theft crimes resulted in charges out of a total of 1,575 crimes. The police clearly do not take this seriously. Of the 36 police forces that have a five-year dataset for dog theft crimes and charges, the annual total shows a year-on-year decrease during the pandemic when the level of crime was rising. I simply say to my right hon. Friends on the Treasury Bench, particularly the Lord Chancellor, that we must take this seriously and we must act.
I accept that these amendments may not be technically absolutely right at this particular stage, but the people out there in the country who elect us want us to act. They are afraid. Some of these dogs are worth £5,000 a time, and the gangs have now got involved. The right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) will know there are street gangs, as I know there are in my area. This is easy money for them because it carries very little penalty, so violence has entered the arena. People are having their hands stamped on, leads are being cut, and are being threatened, pushed or knocked over —some of them quite elderly—and particular dogs are being targeted for sale. This is very easy money for the gangs, and we are encouraging greater levels of criminality.
Our constituents demand that we take action now. We must protect them and their pets. Dogs are not bicycles, they are not items, they are beloved animals that offer succour and support all the way through people’s lives, and we must therefore treat them as such. I argue clearly to my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor that it is high time the Government stepped up to the plate on this. I accept tonight that these may not be the right technical amendments, so I ask my right hon. Friend, when he gets the Dispatch Box, to give us the undertaking that, by the time the Bill returns, this provision will be in law, improved, and that the thieves will be targeted and those who own pets will be protected.