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Pet Passports

I understand the hon. Gentleman's frustration and I am sympathetic to the point that he makes. Clearly, the challenge is having to regulate to force people to do things. I know that the Conservatives, like the Government, want to have the lightest-touch regulation for business, to try to encourage best practice. That approach is always more successful than forcing people to do something. I know that officials in my Department are meeting two of the low-cost airlines fairly soon and I am sure that they will raise the point that he has asked us to raise with them. It is certainly in the interests of airlines to be able to offer products that attract the majority of people to buy them. If one airline is offering a facility that other airlines are not, it gives them a competitive edge. The protocol that was signed within Europe for assisted transport was to encourage best practice and standards that everybody would aspire to. As the hon. Gentleman has described, and as I mentioned, we have clearly made a lot of progress in a relatively short period of time, but we obviously want to ensure that the coverage is as comprehensive as possible. I hear what the hon. Gentleman has said and I am sure that officials from my Department will be able to raise the issue with the airlines. If there is any information that comes from their meeting with the airlines, I will be happy to write to the hon. Gentleman to bring him up to speed. To conclude, I again congratulate the hon. Member for South-West Bedfordshire on securing this interesting and timely debate. I also assure him that, although the Government's priority will remain the protection of human and animal health, we will continue to implement proportionate movement restrictions in compliance with European Union law. The pet travel scheme is something that we are very proud of. The numbers of people using the scheme demonstrate that it is very popular. More than 500,000 people in total have now used it. As I have said already, in the last year for which we have figures 115,000 people used the scheme. It is growing all the time. We need to be vigilant, we need to ensure that pet owners are looked after, and we need to be as sympathetic and compassionate in this area as possible. Question put and agreed to.