Regular followers of this page will know that over the past year my wife and I have welcomed two new whippet puppies to our family. The first puppy, Roux, joined us last March whilst the second, Ada, came along in the autumn. In that short space of time the price of whippet puppies more than doubled.

We were lucky. We love whippets but as a breed they are not that popular. The price of many of the more popular breeds and hybrids have skyrocketed even more. Research conducted by Pets4Homes shows that Cockapoos and Cavapoos have tripled in price.

All of this obviously leads to abuse by disreputable breeders and, even worse, puppy theft.

Our constituency of Bosworth is full of keen animal lovers, ably demonstrated with the petition sent to Parliament about animal welfare where we were in the top 10 of 650 constituencies with the number of signatures.

This week I asked Minister Victoria Prentis about what the Government can do to stop puppy profiteering, you can see her response here: https://www.drlukeevans.org.uk/news/dr-luke-calls-action-tackle-puppy-profiteering

The Minister talked about the ‘petfish’ campaign – a play on the term ‘catfished’ to denote interacting with a false persona online – it’s a campaign which needs far more promotion, especially if you are in the market for a new puppy; you can find out more about the campaign here: https://getyourpetsafely.campaign.gov.uk/

Aside from that this week I have:

• Took part in the Midlands Engine All Party Parliamentary Group which continues to champion the massive economic potential of our region.
• Met with other Leicestershire MPs and Local Government Minister Luke Hall to fight for fairer funding for our county.
• Had a meeting with Snapchat about how my body image campaign could work on their platform. You may recall Snapchat was the first platform to publicly go on the record saying the idea had merit: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13501992/snapchat-back-ban-alterned-selfies/
• Received a briefing along with other East Midlands MPs on how the vaccine programme is being rolled out in the region.
• And a subsequent briefing from Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi MP.
• Took part in a summit meeting with leaders here in Hinckley and Bosworth on our local Covid response.
• Met with the Chancellor in a small group of MP’s to discuss the future budget and needs for Hinckley and Bosworth – A5, urgent care centre, school improvements….and paying the deficit back.
• And received a briefing from the Chair and Chief Executive of the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust.
• Away from Covid I had a productive meeting with regional DWP management about closer working, case work and benefits and the Winter Support Grant
• And held another constituent surgery.