Meeting of the Parliament 16 December 2025 [Draft]
I am grateful to Maurice Golden—and the officials who have supported him—for the work that he has put into this member’s bill, and for introducing legislation that responds to a real public concern. I also thank the Scottish Parliament’s legislation team, the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee clerks, the Scottish Parliament information centre, and everyone who participated in the discussions during the proceedings on the bill.
For many people, dogs are not property in any meaningful sense—they are family. Therefore, when a dog is stolen, the impact is not just financial but distressing and traumatic, and it can be life-changing, not just for the humans.
This bill is based on the United Kingdom Pet Abduction Act 2024 and it takes an important step for Scotland. It creates a clear offence with serious penalties—up to five years in prison—and the possibility of an unlimited fine. That matters, because dog theft is not a harmless, opportunistic crime. The evidence suggests that, during the pandemic, as the price of dogs rose sharply, dog theft increased, too, with concerns that organised crime was involved in some cases.
The data is imperfect, but it is sobering. It is also striking how few successful outcomes there are for victims. Research has highlighted that, in the vast majority of cases, no one is charged and, in more than half of cases, no suspect is even identified. If we want to deter this crime and support victims, we need laws that reflect the real harm done, and a system that can deliver justice.
I particularly welcome section 2, which makes the theft of assistance dogs an aggravated offence. For someone who relies on an assistance dog, their theft does not simply mean losing a companion—it means losing mobility, independence and safety, so recognising that additional harm is absolutely right.
As Maurice Golden has discussed, the bill introduces the term “helper dog”, and he explained that that part of the bill is intended to create flexibility through regulations. I simply urge ministers to use that power carefully and to keep the focus where it belongs—on protecting those who depend on assistance dogs, and on ensuring that the law is clear and enforceable. It was good to hear from the minister this afternoon that she has already commissioned work on that.
I also welcome section 4, which would create a reporting mechanism. That matters because, right now, we are working with partial and inconsistent information. If we are going to tackle dog theft properly, we will need reliable data on its prevalence, on patterns and on outcomes. That will let us know whether the bill is working and what further action may be needed.
Alongside criminal law, we should also keep moving on practical measures that will make it harder to steal dogs and easier to reunite them with their owners. Scotland likely has somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million dogs, and that population may have grown significantly since Covid. Measures to improve the accuracy and compliance of microchipping and to have better traceability from breeder to owner can strengthen prevention and enforcement.
The stage 3 amendment that we dealt with today was minor and technical, but the bill itself is not. It would respond to a real harm, signal that Scotland can take this crime seriously and help us to measure whether we are succeeding. The Scottish Greens will support the bill, and I again thank Maurice Golden for his work.