1.What type of council is Devon County Council?
Devon County Council is a Upper Tier Local Authority. It houses the Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service which enforces Animal Health and Welfare Legislation on behalf of Somerset County Council (Upper Tier) and Plymouth City Council (Unitary) and Torbay Council (Unitary). Those Unitary Councils retain non Trading Standards responsibilities with regard to Animal Welfare (e.g. licensing of activities involving animals).
2. How many officers across all departments deal with animal welfare issues?
0
<2
<4
<6
<8
>8 – more than 8
3. How many dedicated officers do you have for dealing solely with animal welfare issues (from licensing through to dog warden issues)?
0 – Our Trading Standards Officers deal with a range of issues
4. How many of those officers have undertaken specific animal welfare-related training for that role?
All of them
5. Does your council carry out its own animal welfare enforcement work, work jointly with another council or sub-contract it to another council or a third party?
DCC carries out its’ own enforcement work
6. Are you part of a local or regional forum for councils and other enforcement bodies focussing on animal welfare issues and/or sharing knowledge? If so please provide the name of the forum, point of contact and email address.
Regionally, Trading Standards Services participate in collaborative working and projects via Trading Standards South West (TSSW). This includes work focussing on animal disease risk and welfare issues. They can be contacted at https://www.tssw.org.uk/contact/