The 2026 student officer recruitment campaign closed earlier this month

The Police Service of Northern Ireland announced that it has received over 4,000 applications for its 2026 student officer recruitment drive.

This year’s campaign closed on Wednesday, February 4, with a total of 4,104 applications received and while numbers were down from 2025’s 4,822 amount, PSNI said the results were encouraging.

The service’s Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said: “I am very encouraged to see a vast number of people who have shown an interest in applying for a career in policing from across all sections of the community. It is the profession that all other public services turn to at a time of crisis, and the rewards of a career in policing are immeasurable.

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“Policing is a unique career, it’s not simply a job, it’s a vocation. It’s a role that people can be quick to criticise, yet those very critics will always call us when they need help, and we will always be there for them whatever their background, culture or religion. We are a police service for everyone.

“I wish all of the applicants the very best as they will now commence a rigorous multi-stage process. This will ensure that the very best candidates are offered a place on our intensive 22-week training programme at the Police College, Garnerville. Here student officers will develop practical and operational skills alongside our expert trainers, to ensure they are mentally and physically equipped to perform the important role of a police officer. I appeal to people from all backgrounds to consider policing as a career. If you become a police officer you will make a positive difference to so many people’s lives.”

This year’s results saw a slight rise in applications from those from an ethnic minority background, and interest from prospective male recruits. 63.5% of applicants in this year’s drive were males, compared to 62.6% in 2025. Those who applied from ethnic minority backgrounds raised from 3.9% to 4.2% this year.

Catholic applicants fell percentage wise from 28.8% in 2025 to 26.7% in the most recent campaign. Protestant applicants stayed in similar percentages with 65.4% of the pool last year and 65.6% of the total this time around.

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Mother Mercy, a Newcastle-based cocktail bar, has received planning permission to install signage at 19 Silver Street, the former Carphone Warehouse in Durham city centre.

It would be the company’s first venue in County Durham, after opening sites in Newcastle on the Cloth Market and Grey Street, Heaton, and inside the Fenwick department store.

One of Mother Mercy’s luxury cocktails served at Fenwick in Newcastle. (Image: MOTHER MERCY)

Ranked among the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars, it is celebrated for ‘creative’ drinks, expert mixologists, and ‘unforgettable atmosphere’.

Planning documents show signage with the Mother Mercy brand name on the Silver Street location.

They also show the frontage will be painted red with a hand-painted logo above the windows, a new door and a retractable awning installed.

Plans show what the outside of the store could look like. (Image: DURHAM COUNTY COUNCIL PLANNING PORTAL)

Established in 2019, the brand is renowned for its innovative cocktails, exceptional service, and elegant venues serving drinks made with high-end spirits and ingredients.

Signature drinks on its menu include the Saffron & Pomelo Margarita at £30, the Truffle Honey Old Fashioned at £35, and the Praline Champagne Cocktail at £40, made with Rémy Martin XO Cognac, Diplomático Matuano Rum, hazelnut, dark chocolate, gold, and Telmont Réserve Brut Champagne.

Other options include the £40 Champagne Moscow Mule and the £30 Rum & Chocolate Toronto.

Mother Mercy was contacted for details.

Virginia Sibanda worries that her 17-year-old daughter will be forced to elope with one of the well-off local men or one of the many gold-panners that have descended on the nearby Runde River in Zimbabwe’s parched Mwenezi district.

Ravaged by drought and dry spells over the past few years – a situation compounded by the loose soil, sand, and clay washed into the waterways by the panners – Mwenezi, in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province, is one of the poorest villages in Zimbabwe, where a total of 1.5 million are facing hunger according to the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP).

“Everyday I worry and fear that my daughter will fall pregnant for one of these gold-panners who often come to flash money in the community or that she might be enticed into having sex with one of the elderly men that are better off,” Sibanda says.

“Those who are panning for gold are able to get some money and they are using that money to entice young girls into sex, with several young girls in the community falling pregnant. I fear that my daughter will fall for this because of our situation,” she adds.

International development and humanitarian financing from the United States – under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – and from other western countries had been pivotal in providing food aid and in supporting income generating projects in Zimbabwe. With the impacts of the climate crisis becoming more frequent and disruptive, international aid has been a key intervention in resilience and adaptation.

However after the Trump administration essentially shut down USAID last year, communities in the region have been hammered hard and families left struggling and desperate.

Sibanda’s daughter dropped out of school after the USAID agricultural support and food assistance that was sustaining her family was abruptly cut. The little money that Sibanda could spare for school fees when USAID was helping to provide food aid is now being channeled towards survival, with the family living on only one meal a day.

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Dropping her daughter, and another of her children, out of school was a painful but necessary decision for the family. Sometimes Sibanda stays awake at night, pondering over the future of her children tears welling up in her eyes as she describes the family’s plight and her fears over her daughter’s prospects with life. “There are no jobs; there is nothing to talk about regarding employment prospects,” she says.

An outbreak of January Disease – a tick-borne disease prevalent during the rainy-season from December to March – has decimated family cattle herds in that people in Mwenezi often sell-off to sustain livelihoods or pay for school feeds.

Earlier rains for the current cropping season brought hopes of bumper harvests but that too is quickly turning to despair as the current and lengthier dry spell in several of the country’s provinces has dented expectations of meaningful yields of the staple maize crop.

The UN’s WFP and Food and Agriculture Organisation have been providing food assistance in other parts of Mwenezi and Zimbabwe but not in Sibanda’s area this year.

The WFP says it is stretched for resources; where it was planning to assist 538,000 people with food assistance during the current season, it will only manage to provide food aid to fewer than 200,000 people in four of Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces.

‘A high increase in poverty’

Yet it’s not just in Zimbabwe where communities that counted on international aid funding for livelihood and food programs are now struggling to move on with life after the shutdown of USAID.

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In neighbouring Malawi, the level of vulnerability and poverty has intensified since Trump slashed aid funding, Sekai Mudonhi, Malawi country representative for Catholic Relief Services (CRS), tells The Independent.

“Agriculture programmes… have been affected by the aid funding cuts and once agriculture is affected you will have a high increase in food insecurity and the poverty and level of vulnerability just increases,” she says.

Funded by USAID and other donors, CRS and other Catholic charities such as CAFOD taught farmers in Southern Africa new agriculture techniques to adapt to climate change impacts, helping to reduce these issues.

They also helped to drill boreholes in dry areas, bringing to life gardens that also acted as income generating projects for communities and individual rural farmers.

One of the projects that CRS ran in Malawi involved the disbursement of cash transfers to communities which assisted with buying of food after climate shock events such as cyclones, flooding and droughts.

“They [communities] were banking on that support,” says Mudonhi, adding that she and her team – most of whom have also had to be laid off – “had to go back to the communities and tell them that that support will no longer be coming” due to the new policy under Trump.

‘I can’t imagine what they are going through’

In Zimbabwe, Amos Batisayi has also witnessed first-hand the impact of the withdrawal of US and other international funding. He worked with the Mwenezi District Training Center (MDTC), a local NGO that utilised USAID funding for community development and humanitarian programs in the Masvingo province.

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He says that the organisation was targeting dry areas with boreholes for water access for agriculture and community water drinking in remote areas. MDTC, using USAID funding, also ran vocational training programmes for unemployed youths and provided support for income generating projects in remote areas such as Chiredzi.

With USAID shut down, irrigation schemes and gardens that had been brought to life through rehabilitation and drilling of new boreholes are now in trouble. This means that communities in remote and hard to reach areas such as Chiredzi where villagers walk up to three miles (five kilometres) to get to the nearest water source are now struggling.

“Now all these programmes have all stopped and this means that our communities, villagers and farmers are no longer able to generate an income, making their lives all the more difficult; I cant imagine what they are going through,” Batisayi says.

One such beneficiary of the USAID-funded programs under MDTC was Silence Ncube from Ramadhaka Village in Chiredzi South, some 270 miles from the capital Harare.

Ncube enrolled for vocational training as a bricklayer through financial assistance from USAID while others in her community were given the ability to start raising chickens and begin vegetable gardening.

This, she says, provided valuable skills, income opportunities and access to clean water. But when the stop orders for financing of such initiatives under USAID were issued by the Trump administration last year, Ncube and her community were hit.

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Their lives and sources of livelihoods ground to a halt and hopes for the future turned bleak. Today, they are “struggling to move on with life”, she says.

‘The energy to go panning’

The challenges of the severe drop in US funding have prompted NGOs – previously focused more on competition to secure funding – to increasingly focus on collaboration and sharing of resources, skills and data.

It is a shift that is fuelling a broader rethink regarding international aid, according to Matthias Spaeth, Zimbabwe country director for Welt Hunger Hilfe. He says that the problem of international aid funding cuts is bigger than USAID, as countries like the UK also cut funding.

He adds that his biggest fear regarding the impact of cuts to development aid is that “nothing changes” in the future and the cuts come coming at a time when communities are in dire need.

Back in Mwenezi, Sibanda hopes that one day soon donors such as the UN agencies that will return assist with food rations so that she can be able to go and pan for gold – the price of which has skyrocketed on international markets.

“If we can get donors who can assist us with food then we can have the energy to go panning for gold or if we are lucky we can get some money for income generating programmes such as farming,” she says.

This article has been produced as part of The Independent’s Rethinking Global Aid project

The game reduced traumatic memories for people who work in the NHS

Playing Tetris could help reduce distressing memories of trauma, a trial has found. Health workers who played the classic computer game as part of their treatment experienced fewer flashbacks, researchers said. Experts are now hoping to test the method, which they describe as “accessible, scalable and adaptable”, on a larger group of people

The trial, carried out by researchers in the UK and Sweden, included 99 NHS staff exposed to trauma at work – such as witnessing deaths – during the Covid-19 pandemic. Some 40 patients were given the treatment which involved playing Tetris, known as imagery competing task intervention (ICTI).

The group were asked to play a slow version of the classic game while briefly recalling a traumatic memory. They were then asked to use their mind’s eye to imagine the Tetris grid and visualise the blocks. The ICTI method is thought to weaken the vividness of the intrusive memories by occupying the brain’s visuospatial areas, which help it to analyse and understand physical space.

Emily Holmes, a professor of psychology at Uppsala University – who led the study, said: “Even a single, fleeting intrusive memory of past trauma can exert a powerful impact in daily life by hijacking attention and leaving people at the mercy of unwanted and intrusive emotions.

“By weakening the intrusive aspect of these sensory memories via this brief visual intervention, people experience fewer trauma images flashing back.”

The remaining patients either listened to music by Mozart to help alleviate stress, along with podcasts about the composer, or received standard treatment. The study, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, found that those who received the ICTI treatment had 10 times fewer flashbacks compared to other groups within four weeks.

After six months, some 70% reported having no intrusive memories at all. The treatment also helped tackle symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Prof Holmes added: “We are delighted to have made a real breakthrough by showing this intervention works.

“It is far more than just playing Tetris, and while it is simple to use, it’s been a complicated process to refine and develop. The intervention focuses on our mental imagery, not words, and is designed to be as gentle, brief and practical as possible to fit into people’s busy lives.

“We hope to expand our research so it can be put into practise by determining its effectiveness for a broader range of people and scenarios.”

Charlotte Summers, director of the Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart & Lung Research Institute and professor of intensive care medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: “Every day, healthcare workers across the world are recurrently exposed, to traumatic events in the course of their work, impacting the mental and physical wellbeing of those who care for us when we are unwell.

“At a time when global healthcare systems remain under intense pressure, the discovery of a scalable digital intervention that promotes the wellbeing of health professionals experiencing work-related traumatic events is an exciting step forward.”

The team is now exploring ways to test ICTI on larger and more diverse groups, as well as looking at options for a non-guided version of the game. Tayla McCloud, research lead for digital mental health at Wellcome – which funded the study, said: “These results are impressive for such a simple to use intervention.

“If we can get similarly strong results in bigger trials, this could have an enormous impact. It’s rare to see something so accessible, scalable and adaptable across contexts. It doesn’t require patients to put their trauma into words and even transcends language barriers.

“This study is a key example of why Wellcome is investing in a wide range of mental health interventions, so that in the future everyone will have access to treatments that work for them.”

COMMANDING proud over Peasholme Green in York is the The Black Swan, a popular meeting place and hostelry; which has a lot to be proud about.

The Civic Trust plaque at the entrance to this grade two (star) listed building gives a brief account of the main characters associated with the building, one of which has a most interesting story to tell.

The Black Swan was originally built in 1417 as a family home for the Bowes family.

Black Swan and Peasholme Green in 1950s. Photo from City of York Council Explore Libraries archive

This merchant family would provide two Lord Mayors for the City, William Bowes in 1417 and his son, also William in 1443 both also representing York as Members of Parliament.

In those times, prior to the building of the Mansion House (built from 1725-32), Lord Mayors were expected to conduct civic duties and entertain distinguished visitors at their residential homes.

But it is another member of the Bowes family that has a greater claim to fame. Martin Bowes was born in the family home around 1497 and while a young teenager he ventured down to London to seek fame and fortune.

Sir Martin Bowes – York’s Dick Whittington. Photo supplied

He secured a position in the Royal Mint and eventually attained the premier position of Treasurer of the Royal Mint during the reign of Elizabeth I.

He became a prominent member of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, made Lord Mayor of London in 1545/46 and was later was knighted to become Sir Martin Bowes; but he never forgot the city of his birth.

He learnt that the church on Peasholme Green, St Cuthbert’s, was due to be demolished in 1547. The church had been the place of the Bowes family worship for many years so he pleaded to the city that the church be saved; and was successful.

In gratitude of the reprieve, he presented the city with a fine ceremonial ‘Sword of State’, the Bowes Sword (initially encrusted with precious jewels which ‘disappeared’ when the sword was loaned to London in 1603), which has been used on civic occasions ever since.

Peasholme Green in the late 1930s, with a police box in front of the Black Swan. Picture: Explore York Libraries and Archives

It is always carried in a civic procession by an officer wearing the Cap of Maintenance and if a monarch is present it is carried with the handle upper-most.

It is also this sword, crossed with the city’s 17th century mace, that is displayed at the rear of the York Coat of Arms, a constant reminder of a brave son of York who sought and achieved fame and fortune in our capital city.

Later, in the 17th century, another resident, Edward Thompson, would represent York as an MP and Lord Mayor in 1683.

The building would once again take on a civic role. The Thomson family had a daughter, Henrietta, who married Colonel Edward Wolfe, their son James would become the distinguished military man, General James Wolfe of Quebec.

Archive picture from York Library of a charabanc trip leaving from the Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green in 1910. Landlord Fred Wright in foreground with trilby hat and hand on hip.

In the late 18th century the role of the building changed to be a local hostelry, offering the use of a first floor meeting room and dispensing hospitality to the public, a role it still enjoys today.

Its listed status means that the building’s 18th character has escaped modernisation, the retained oak panelling on the walls, grand staircase and uneven floors ensuring its ‘olde worlde’ charm.

Inevitably, the pub has attracted many fanciful stories of ghosts and even a secret underground passage to St Cuthbert’s church, but the main story of the Black Swan is a true one, that of Sir Martin Bowes – York’s own ‘Dick Whittington’.

Ivan Martin is the vice-president of the Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (YAYAS) and former city, Minster and Mansion House guide

WASHINGTON (AP) — In another era, the scene would have been unremarkable. But in President Donald Trump’s Washington, it’s become increasingly rare.

Sitting side by side on stage were Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat. They traded jokes and compliments instead of insults and accusations, a brief interlude of cordiality in a cacophony of conflict.

Stitt and Moore are the leaders of the National Governors Association, one of a vanishing few bipartisan institutions left in American politics. But it may be hard for the organization, which is holding its annual conference this week, to maintain its reputation as a refuge from polarization.

Trump has broken with custom by declining to invite all governors to the traditional White House meeting and dinner. He has called Stitt, the NGA’s chair, a “RINO,” short for Republican in name only, and continued to feud with Moore, the group’s vice chair, by blaming him for a sewage spill involving a federally regulated pipeline.

The break with tradition reflects Trump’s broader approach to his second term. He has taken a confrontational stance toward some states, withholding federal funds or deploying troops over the objections of local officials.

With the Republican-controlled Congress unwilling to limit Trump’s ambitions, several governors have increasingly cast themselves as a counterweight to the White House.

“Presidents aren’t supposed to do this stuff,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said about the expansion of executive power in recent administrations. “Congress needs to get their act together. And stop performing for TikTok and actually start doing stuff. That’s the flaw we’re dealing with right now.”

Cox, a Republican, said “it is up to the states to hold the line.”

Moore echoed that sentiment in an interview with The Associated Press.

“People are paying attention to how governors are moving, because I think governors have a unique way to move in this moment that other people just don’t,” he said.

Still, governors struck an optimistic tone in panels and interviews Wednesday. Stitt said the conference is “bigger than one dinner at the White House.” Moore predicted “this is going to be a very productive three days for the governors.”

“Here’s a Republican and Democrat governor from different states that literally agree on probably 80% of the things. And the things we disagree on we can have honest conversations on,” Stitt said while sitting beside Moore.

Tensions over the guest list for White House events underscored the uncertainty surrounding the week. During the back-and-forth, Trump feuded with Stitt and said Moore and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis were not invited because they “are not worthy of being there.”

Whether the bipartisan tone struck Wednesday evening can endure through the week — and beyond — remains an open question.

“We can have disagreements. In business, I always want people around me arguing with me and pushing me because that’s where the best ideas come from,” said Stitt. “We need to all have these exchange of ideas.”

The Bolton School old boy and The Lord Of The Rings star, 86, will play the artist, also known as Laurence Stephen Lowry, nearly five decades on from his death in Arts Arena film LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes.

The documentary will see Sir Ian “add the body and the face” to the voice of the painter, as he lip-syncs unheard recordings between Lowry and Angela Barratt, a young fan at the time who interviewed him as he recounted his childhood through to his final days.

Speaking about the role, Sir Ian said: “I’m surprised to discover the most challenging aspect of lip syncing is making your mouth fit the recorded words.

“It ain’t easy. I don’t find it easy.”

The X-Men actor went on to say that he is “amazed” by his co-star Annabel Smith’s ability, adding: “You record a sentence at a time until you’ve got an exact match.

“I’d be very interested to see what it looks like and I know what it sounds like, but am I doing enough with my face, am I doing too little? I don’t know.

Sir Ian McKellen, playing English artist LS Lowry in a BBC documentary Arts Arena film LS Lowry: The Unheard TapesBBC/Wall to Wall Media/Connor Harris/PA Wire (Image: BBC/Wall to Wall Media/Connor Harris/PA Wire)

“It’s a skill which I don’t think you conquer just on one attempt. But I wanted to do it not just because of my interest in Lowry, but because I thought it would be fun, rather late in my career to have a new ability.”

Sir Ian added: “What’s surprising about these Lowry tapes is that he gets the inflection wrong. He doesn’t always stress the right word.

“An actor is very concerned to do that, so that the sense of what’s being said is clear and the intention behind it is clear.

“But it’s been fun for me, beyond the words to perhaps indicate there’s sometimes a twinkle in his eye and a glance to the side that the sound recorders couldn’t have picked up.

“There’s more going on in these tapes than just the words, I think.

“You can tell an awful lot from someone’s voice. Well, when the actor adds the body and the face, then the presentation is complete.”

Sir Ian McKellen, playing English artist LS Lowry in a BBC documentary Arts Arena film LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes. (Image: BBC/Wall to Wall Media/Connor Harris/PA Wire)

Sir Ian said that a person’s voice reveals “an awful lot”, adding: “I wish I had sound recordings of my long-dead family, for example, and I would love to hear my mother’s voice and my father’s.

“Not just to take me back, but because a voice reveals an awful lot about a person and would tell me things that I didn’t get a chance to understand while they were alive. I think the same’s true with hearing these tapes.”

Speaking about his interest in Lowry as an artist and as a person, Sir Ian said: “I mean he appeals to me as an actor because he clearly loved the theatre, we know that from his reports of his life and he liked the ballet, he liked pantomime.

“And I think that’s reflected more than people perhaps realise in the paintings and drawings.”

He added: “I think what’s revealed from these tapes is that he did very much to his work, his paintings. He was a great artist.”

The one-hour Arena documentary, the BBC’s long-standing arts strand, will also explore how Salford and Greater Manchester’s industrial landscape changed over the years, a feature which was often captured in Lowry’s work.

The film will air on BBC Two and iPlayer at 9pm on February 25.

People are raving on about the drama series which is believed to be a ‘hidden gem’ and it’s available on a number of TV networks, including Disney+. So have you seen this before?

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Looking for the next big TV series to binge-watch? It can be hard finding a new show to watch, especially if you’ve just finished something decent on Netflix or Amazon Prime.

Now people are raving on about a ‘hidden gem’ they found – and it’s available on a number of TV networks, including Disney+. After one TV fan asked for recommendations in a popular thread, many people flooded the comments section where they offered a number of suggestions, one of them being Will Trent, a American police TV drama. The series follows a Special Agent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.

As a child, Trent was abandoned and forced to endure a harsh coming-of-age in Atlanta’s overwhelmed foster care system. It was based on one of prolific New York Times author Karin Slaughter’s bestselling books.

The Reddit post read: “Any current network (CBS, ABC, NBC, etc.) TV shows that are any good? Most of the shows I currently watch are on streaming services and I’m wondering if there’s any hidden gems I’m missing out on.”

Many people shared their suggestions, including High Potential and The Rookie.

But plenty of viewers labelled Will Trent as a must-see. The series, which is also available on other network channels, can be streamed on Disney+ for subscribers.

The series was developed by Liz Heldens and Daniel T. Thomsen which stars Ramón Rodríguez and premiered on January 3, 2023, on ABC.

A year later in April, the series was renewed for a third season which landed on January 7, 2025. Then months later, the series was given the green light for a fourth season which finally premiered on January 6, this year.

The series follows Will who grew up in the Atlanta foster care system after being abandoned as a child. Despite being dyslexic and his upbringing having a lasting effect on him, he became a Special Agent in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).

Will, a highly observant character, had been assigned a corruption case involving the Atlanta Police Department which shares an office building with the GBI.

The story also shows his on-again off-again relationship with APD Detective Angie Polaski, a childhood friend from the foster care system.

Will Trent has a 7.7 out of 10 rating on IMDb and 83% on Rotten Tomatoes. To watch it on Disney+, you must have a subscription on the streaming platform.

North Yorkshire Police said it happened around 11.45am on Sunday, February 8 on the route between the A64 and Askham Bar Park and Ride and college playing fields.

The force said a naked man approached a woman walking along the path.

The woman is currently receiving support from police officers, the force said.

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As North Yorkshire Police launched an appeal for information, a force spokesperson said: “The man is described as approximately 5feet 7inches tall, in his early to mid-30s, and had light stubble and short, light brown hair.

“We’re appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time and witnessed the incident or saw the man to get in touch.

“We also urge anyone else who may have been approached in a similar way to get in touch.

“Please email helen.barrett@northyorkshire.police.uk if you have any information that could help our investigation.

“Alternatively, you can call North Yorkshire Police on 101 and ask for Helen Barrett, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via their website.

“Please quote reference 12260023816 when passing on information.”

Under the proposals, sellers and suppliers will also have to register with their local council

The third-party sale of puppies and kittens is set to be banned, and those selling and supplying puppies and selling kittens under six months will be required to register with their local council under new plans being brought forward by DAERA Minister Andrew Muir.

Minister Muir has published his Department’s Way Forward document and consultation responses following a public consultation on the sale and supply of puppies and kittens in Northern Ireland.

Under the proposals, the registered seller and/or supplier will be required to meet specified conditions of registration. One condition of registration is ‘Lucy’s Law’, which will ban the third-party sale of puppies and kittens. This means that anyone selling and supplying puppies and kittens in Northern Ireland must have bred them themselves.

Minister Muir said: “I am delighted to announce that Northern Ireland will soon have its own version of Lucy’s Law, ensuring that we are giving the same protections to puppies and kittens that exist in other parts of the UK.

“I want owners to have confidence that their new pets have been cared to the high standards of welfare that all animals deserve. This ban on the third-party sale of puppies and kittens, as well as accompanying mandatory registration for sellers and suppliers, will lead to better outcomes for the animals, reducing the risk of disease and improving socialisation and habituation. Purchasing directly from a breeder helps to avoid early separation from the mother, and ultimately, will see more puppies and kittens raised in responsible, caring environments.

“It is clear from the consultation that there is overwhelming support for this vital animal welfare intervention in our society, am I am grateful to those who took the time to respond to the consultation and voiced their views. I look forward to seeing this key commitment from my Animal Welfare Pathway 2025-27 delivered.”

The Minister concluded: “It is anticipated that legislation will be made this autumn, and I have asked that my officials work closely with local councils, who play a vital role in the enforcement of legislation relating to companion animals, in planning for its effective implementation.

“Improving animal welfare is close to my heart as Minister, and Lucy’s Law is about seeing more of our puppies and kittens being given the best start in life.”

Laura Orr, Regional Public Affairs Officer at Dogs Trust and Chair of Northern Ireland Companion Animal Welfare Group (NICAWG) said: “ We welcome DAERA’s proposals following the consultation on the sale and supply of puppies and kittens. NICAWG supports the recommendations, which will require sellers and suppliers of puppies, and sellers of kittens, under six months of age, to register with their local council and for a register of those sellers to be publicly accessible.