To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when he plans to publish codes of practice on the welfare of (a) dogs and (b) cats under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. (290068)

At the end of last year, we completed a public consultation exercise on three draft codes—for the keeping of cats, dogs and equines. We are now considering the many responses we had to the consultation on each draft code and will then ask Parliament to approve the revised codes. Assuming Parliament approves the codes, they will come into force on 6 April 2010.