Mr David Ruffley (Assistant Chief Whip, Whips; Bury St Edmunds, Conservative)

We may get on to some of the points that have been made later. I hope that the Minister will respond. I hear what he said. He was also courteous enough to send me a copy of a letter that relates to a later clause. I will not try your patience with it now, Mr. Taylor, but I thank the Minister for that point, to which we will return.

There is no doubt that the regime is costly and difficult to administer and that reform is called for. The clean neighbourhoods consultation set out proposals to streamline the dog byelaw system, which received almost unanimous support from local authorities. However, some authorities also said that they would welcome the chance to designate areas in which dog access is restricted, while pointing out that such a measure would need policing. That is another theme in the proposals—the adequacy of policing. That will crop up later in our deliberations.

I wonder why various bodies have said that the consultation was not exactly as they would have liked. The bodies I have in mind are the respective bodies that include certain members of the National Dog Warden Association, the Dogs Trust and the Kennel Club.

Amendment No. 107 is a probing amendment, because we are not entirely satisfied that the ambit of subsection (3) is sufficiently well drawn. It has been said to us that there is some doubt as to how the powers in clause 55 will actively improve the provisions of the Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996, which makes it a criminal offence not to remove dog faeces from designated land immediately. The National Dog Warden Association is involved in the front line of dealing with issues as specific as that. The 1996 Act was widely welcomed by those with an interest in this area of policy.

Another point arises concerning the limit on the number of dogs one person can keep in a non-commercial environment. What is the precise definition of this restriction? Is it intended that there will be a universal maximum number forming the restriction? I notice from the explanatory notes that regulations will tell us the scope of the offence, giving us the detail that is not in the Bill, but it would be useful to have some indication of what scope each of the individual new offences will have in the regulations.

Amendment No. 100 would require that the ''appropriate person'', the Secretary of State

''must consult interested parties before an offence under subsection (3) is prescribed by regulations.''

Does the Minister believe that any further consultation is necessary now or in the future if more regulations are made? The amendment would place the necessary obligation on the Secretary of State transparently and clearly in the Bill. To have that there would not be contentious.

I have other points on clause 56, relating to duties that we would like to place on the Secretary of State, but would the Minister reply to those arguments in the shape of our amendments?

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