Pet Abduction Act 2024

Commons bill Private Members' Bill (Ballot) 2024-25 Act of Parliament

A Private Members' Bill introduced through the annual ballot, which gives backbench MPs a chance to secure Friday debate time. Ballot bills are the only PMBs with a realistic prospect of becoming law without government support.

Sponsor

Anna Firth

+ 1 co-sponsor

Lord Black of Brentwood (Conservative)

Introduced

6 December 2023

Royal Assent

24 May 2024

Parliament

View on Parliament ↗

About this bill

A Bill to create offences of dog abduction and cat abduction and to confer a power to make corresponding provision relating to the abduction of other animals commonly kept as pets.

Parliamentary stages

Stages shown in blue link to the debate transcript. Not sure what these stages mean? How Parliament makes laws →

Commons

✓ First reading 6 Dec 2023

✓ Second reading 19 Jan 2024↗

✓ Committee stage 31 Jan 2024↗

✓ Report stage 19 Apr 2024↗

✓ Third reading 19 Apr 2024↗

Lords

✓ First reading 22 Apr 2024

✓ Second reading 10 May 2024↗

✓ Order Of Commitment Discharged 24 May 2024↗

✓ Third reading 24 May 2024↗

Final stages

✓ Royal Assent 24 May 2024

Some stage debates occurred before our Hansard archive begins (May 2025). Links marked ↗ go to Parliament's own Hansard for that date.

Parliamentary information from bills.parliament.uk ↗, licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0. Explanatory Notes extracts are verbatim from Parliament's published documents.

What this bill is about

From the Explanatory Notes (April 2024):

1 The Pet Abduction Bill ("the Bill") introduces new criminal offences in relation to the taking or detaining of a dog from the lawful control of any person; and the taking of a cat from the lawful control of any person. 2 The Bill also introduces an enabling power to amend the Bill to apply or replicate the offences through secondary legislation to other species of animal commonly kept as pets, when certain conditions are met.

Read the full Explanatory Notes ↗