Legislation Leads on Dogs

This is something that I have wanted to talk about for some time. It comes up regularly on social media, it's often unclear about what is covered and where; and after getting through to page 6 of 16 on the guidance for legislation regarding sections 55-67 of the clean neighbourhoods and environment Act 2005 (and breathe); I’ve realised it may take more than just one blog!

So, what I’m going to talk about what offecences exactly are included in a ‘control of dogs order’. I will put links the sites I have referenced and used for the information here below if you too would like to read the guidance in its entirety (you may need some aspirin if you do!).

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Now I am not a legal expert but I hope that this will give you better understanding of what the legislation actually is and how it may affect you and your dogs, or people you know. I will try to keep the legal thesaurus to a minimum but I have found the word use in the guidance very deliberate, seemingly to be broad and wide reaching and to make me feel like I know nothing of the English language!

The clean neighbourhoods and environment Act 2005 covers several different areas including: waste, litter, noise, abandoned vehicles and even abandoned trolleys to name a few. But it’s the dog parts we’re talking about and that comes in at section 55.

This describes the offences and penalties as well as the procedures and forms for making dog control orders. It’s important to mention that Dog Control Orders replace the previous system of byelaws for the control of dogs and the Dogs fouling of land Act 1996 (which has been repealed).

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For today I am just going to talk about what offences are described by this legislation; I’ll do more posts covering the other sections, once my brain has had time to recover from all the legalese.
The regulation describes five offences which may be ‘prescribed’ in a dog control order. These offences are:

1. failing to remove dog faeces
2. not keeping a dog on a lead
3. not putting, and keeping, a dog on a lead when directed to do so by an authorised officer
4. permitting a dog to enter land from which dogs are excluded
5. taking more than a specified number of dogs onto land

This is the exact wording of the offences given in the guidance for this legislation.

The penalty for committing one of these offences is a maximum fine of: level 3 on the standard scale (this is currently £1,000). My understanding of the wording is that this would be for each offence made; alternatively, an offer to pay a fixed penalty may be given in place of prosecution.
Remember these offences are applicable to areas that have Dog Control Orders on them and this includes roads. I’ll do a separate post about ‘Land subject to Dog Control Orders’ at another time.

It might not seem like I’ve covered a lot today, but I still have 10 more page to read through of the guidance and it seemed best to brake it down into more manageable pieces.

If you have any questions about today's blog, please message me via the contact page and I’d be happy to try and help.

Useful links used for today’s article:
www.opsi.gov.uk
www.defra.gov.uk/environment/localenv/index.htm
www.cleanersafergreener.gov.uk
www.together.gov.uk

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