questionText: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she plans to introduce a Central Microchip Portal to enable authorised users, including (i) veterinary professionals, (ii) local authorities, (iii) animal wardens and (iv) police forces, to conduct secure cross-database microchip lookups; and what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the number of separate pet microchip databases on (a) reunification times for lost and stolen pets and (b) enforcement under the Pet Abduction Act 2024.
answerText: Since the introduction of compulsory dog microchipping in 2016, the number of compliant database operators has increased from four to 24. While this gives consumers more choice, it has made it harder for authorised users to access records quickly. Defra i...
heading: Pets: Databases