Meeting of the Parliament 16 December 2025 [Draft]
For me, it is about a principle—about whether the impact on the victim is a matter of record. I think that it should be and it should be taken into account.
Let me turn to something else that has been dropped, and that is the annual reporting on the enforcement of the act. The Minister for Victims and Community Safety told Parliament at stage 1 that providing an annual report on the enforcement of the act “makes it operationally impossible”. I do not accept this, and neither should Parliament. Accountability is important for the functioning of our democracy, and the minister appears before Parliament as a prisoner of operational matters far too often, whether it relates to cuts to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service; the continued defiance of laws prohibiting fireworks and pyrotechnics use and the absence of a licensing system for that, which, in my personal experience, is also an animal welfare and animal cruelty issue; or this legislation today on dog theft—each one an important area of policy that the minister has direct responsibility for, and I would ask her to reflect on that.
On the other hand, I do accept the argument that post-legislative scrutiny is the prerogative of this Parliament and not of the Government, but that, in turn, requires good data—good data collection and transparency—so that future members of Parliament are able to follow the evidence. As a matter of record, that is something that the Government and its agencies are not always very good at providing. We need action in this area, because people and Parliament deserve more than words of admonishment by the Auditor General for Scotland or criticism by the Public Audit Committee. People deserve action and a wholesale change in political culture.
Where there has been good understanding and where good progress has been made is on the need to raise awareness of the new offence, because our purpose in voting for the legislation is for it to act as a deterrent. While Maurice Golden and I differ on his custodial approach, we can agree that we need to stop dog thefts happening in the first place. We can agree that, when they do happen, we need to raise the probability of the safe return of the dog to their home.
Let me finish with the principles and the values that lie behind the legislation. Dogs are not property—they are living, sentient beings. They are not commodities—they are companions. They are not a lower form of life, but an equal form of life. Without them, for many of us, there would be a loneliness of the soul.
We will be voting for this Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill this afternoon. Many of us will be doing so not only with moral purpose and passion forged on personal experience, but with political principle as well.