Mr. Martin Blake:

On ear cropping, again, as I said, it is banned. It is clearly banned in our Animal Health and Welfare Act and our subsequent statutory instruments. As I said, it now appears from reports from our animal welfare charities that there are increasing numbers of these turning up in society. In the context of control, I understand we had one successful prosecution some time back. The difficulty is that unless one actually finds someone doing that, it is well-nigh impossible to actually build a case with sufficient evidence to prove it. We do not have any ability to actually seize a dog whose ears have been cropped. It is an issue in the context of trying to get that balance right in relation to the welfare of the animal. Notwithstanding it might have gone through some pain and suffering with its ears being cropped, but the animal did no harm. As I said, we are looking within the Department at policy initiatives we might take, supported by our legal services division, as to what extra we might do. The Minister has committed to bring forward some proposals on that later this year to try to address that lacuna.

In the context of the animal welfare line, we try to use every opportunity, be it in response to any announcement we have, grants we issue or responses to press queries or parliamentary questions on animal welfare, to promote the availability and knowledge of this helpline. On the pattern, I do not think a trend can be drawn in the pattern so far this year because there will often be more reports in the winter than in the middle of the summer. I do not have any data to reference the first three months of this year, but-----