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Delayed Office Opening for Employee Training This office willbe closed from 8.45 am - 11.00 am on the first Thursday of each month. Environmental and Consumer Services PERTH& Head of Service KINROSS Mark Butterworth COUNCIL Pullar House, 35 Kinnoull Street, PERTH, PH1 5GD

Jenny Marra MSP Room T 3.60 Contact Robert Lyle The Scottish Parliament Edinburgh EH99 1SP

31400A Our ref MB/ZE

Your ref

Date 8October 2019

Dear Ms Marra

Post- legislative Scrutiny of Control of Dogs () Act 2010

Thank you for your letter of 19 July 2019 regarding the above matter. Please accept my apologies for late response.

Although I welcome the report, I am advised that the reports' conclusions do not reflect current working practices regarding dangerous dog occurrences within .

WOOON This Council deals with 'dog on person attacks' by agreement with with our officers providing assistance. The role of our officers in such circumstances, apart from assisting Police Scotland is to issue Dog Control Notices appropriate to each circumstance. This sanction is also applied to other situations such as, dog attacks on other dogs as a means of preventing irresponsible dog ownership.

Fortunately, within Perth and Kinross, this is not a common occurrence and as such, Council intervention is rare however, a procedure in in place to ensure that the Council applies current legislation swiftly and robustly to dog related incidents.

The Council therefore, has not to date, had cause to apply for a Destruction Order in terms of the legislation, having had no circumstance where it has been deemed appropriate. This may be as a result of our intervention strategy, which focuses on provision of help and advice to dog owners after issue of a Dog Control Notice.

Housing & Environment Executive Director (Housing & Environment) Barbara Renton In relation to your request regarding steps to strengthen our approach, I would assure you that Perth and Kinross Council already adopts a rigid approach, acting as robustly as the legislation allows and uses a suite of intervention measures to prevent dog attack occurrences.

Yours sincerely

Mark Butterworth

Head of Environmental and Consumer Services