Dog Control Notices – Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010: EIR release

Information requested

On 18 January, in the Scottish Parliament during First Ministers Questions, the Scottish First Minister made reference to 1,200 current Dog Control Notices (DCNs) issued under the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 by Scottish Local Authorities.

Please provide the following information covering the 32 Scottish Local Authorities:

• How many current DCNs have been issued by each LA
• For what specific reason were they issued
• How many have been discharged
• How many have resulted in non-compliance prosecution/conviction
• How many have resulted in a Dog Destruction Order
• How many have resulted in a Dog Ownership Disqualification Order
• How many have resulted in a Further DCN being issued

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested.

With regard to your request for information on:

• How many current DCNs have been issued by each LA
• How many have been discharged

The table attached as an Annex to this paper contains this information. That data is correct as at 19 February 2023.

With regard to your request for information on:

• For what specific reason were they [DCNs] issued
• How many have resulted in non-compliance prosecution/conviction
• How many have resulted in a Dog Destruction Order
• How many have resulted in a Dog Ownership Disqualification Order
• How many have resulted in a Further DCN being issued

The Scottish Government does not have the other information you have requested.

To provide some background.

The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 ("the 2010 Act) introduced the DCN regime. Local authority dog wardens are able to issue a DCN on dog owners. The DCN is a civil notice which can contain a number of conditions such as requiring a dog to be kept on a lead and muzzled when in public. A breach of a DCN is a criminal offence. Scottish Government Guidance on the 2010 Act, published in December 2020, is available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/updated-guidance-control-dogs-scotland-act-2010/

In 2021 the Scottish Government commissioned the Improvement Service to take forward work to design and create a national DCN database. To bring together the records of all 32 local authorities into a centralised database that is accessible by local authorities and Police Scotland.

The Scottish Dog Control Database Order 2021 came into force on 31 December 2021 and provided for the establishment of the national DCN database. The national database has been operational since February 2022.

The Order restricts access to the database to only those with reason to require access to the information held for the purposes of the 2010 Act. This is local authorities and Police Scotland (constables and civilian staff), plus those working for the Improvement Service.

The Order also sets out that the Improvement Service will manage the database. With all 32 local authorities able to upload details of served DCNs, with Police Scotland granted ‘view only’ access.

The Scottish Government does not have direct access to the national database.

Scottish Government officials do presently receive weekly updates from the Improvement Service on the current number of DCNs issued. The weekly updates from the Improvement Service also contain details of those DCNs that are discharged. It is this data that is attached as an Annex.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400395468 - Information Released - Annex

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