MSP calls for ‘good level’ of dog wardens as attacks increase

Councils need a “good level” of wardens amid concerns about the rising number of dog attacks, Community Safety Minister Ash Denham has said.

She described spending in this area as preventative, saying: “If you spend the money here you are not going to need to spend it stitching people up in A&E later.”

She spoke out after Anas Sarwar outlined the growing scale of the problem to MSPs on Holyrood’s Public Audit and Post Legislative Scrutiny Committee.

There were 864 cases of people being admitted to hospital after dog attacks in 2019, he said, up from 811 the previous year. That included 33 people who needed reconstructive surgery in 2018, he said, adding that no figures were available for this for last year

Mr Sarwar, the interim committee convener, said more than 10,000 people had attended A&E following dog attacks in 18 months.

He said: “In 2018 the number of attendances related to dog attacks was just under 6,500 – in the first half of 2019, for when we have figures available, it was closer to 4,100.

“There’s also stark figures, 319 charges related to dog attacks in 2019-20, 53 of them in Glasgow. This is a really big issue, and it is physically and literally scarring individuals and scarring lives.”

A report from the committee in June 2019 found that dog control laws were “not fit for purpose” and failed to prevent attacks on children.

Ms Denham insisted it was a “very serious” problem and she was “committed to driving forward action on this area”.

Ash Denham MSP has said dog attacks are a “very serious” problem.