Watch as First Minister Humza Yousaf confirms at the Scottish Parliament that the Scottish Government will follow England and Wales in enforcing new rules.
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00:00 In light of the new controls on the breed in England and Wales, which have come into effect
00:03 on 1 February, can the First Minister outline when his Government will reach a decision on this issue?
00:09 First and foremost, it is probably worth saying that the description of what is happening in
00:17 England and Wales is not a ban on ex-hill bully dogs. Of course, owners can still keep an ex-hill
00:25 bully dog; they have to make sure that it is registered on the exemption index and they have
00:29 to fulfil the other criteria of the legislation. When the issue was first announced, without any
00:34 consultation with the Scottish Government or, as far as I can see, any consultation with animal
00:40 welfare stakeholders, we committed the Scottish Government to engage with animal welfare
00:45 stakeholders and to continue to engage with the UK Government. What has become clear,
00:50 I am afraid, in the past few weeks is that we have seen a flow of ex-hill bully dogs coming
00:56 to Scotland, and a number of people are coming to Scotland to bring ex-hill bully dogs to the
01:05 country. As such—we will give further details to members of the Scottish Parliament through a
01:11 ministerial statement if the Parliamentary Bureau agrees next week—we will, in essence, replicate
01:17 the legislation that is in England and Wales here in Scotland. Ultimately, although we have
01:24 a very good system of dog control notice schemes and we take the approach of "deed not breed",
01:32 we have to respond to the situation as it currently stands. Therefore, we will do what
01:37 we need to do to ensure public safety. Further detail will be given by the appropriate minister
01:44 next week, subject to the Parliamentary Bureau's agreement.