RUSHES: Pet theft / local elections: George Eustice interview

Pet theft / local elections: George Eustice interview; ENGLAND: London: Westminster:INTGeorge Eustice MP (Environment Secretary) interview SOTre PET THEFT TASKFORCE:- Demand for pets has increased over last 123 months- People in lockdown spending more time at home- Worrying trend in increased reports of pet theft- Gangs stealing pets- Taskforce to get to bottom of the problem and reveal scale of problemre ELECTIONS:- A big responsibility on us- Won in Hartlepool and mayoral contest - Govt cares about their priorities - Help overlooked communitiesre IF SNP GETS MAJORITY:- No case for a referendum- Legislation would need to be done in Westminster- Was a referendum little over 5 years ago- Need to focus on pandemic- Not the time for another divisive referendumre MESSAGE TO NICOLA STURGEON:- Our message to everyone ...- Now is not the time to have another referendum and constitutional wrangling- Need to get out of pandemic and get economy moving again- We will deal with the situation as it arises- We don't think there's a case for another referendum- Had one little over 5 years agore SUGGESTIONS UK WILL BE VIRUS-FREE BY AUGUST:- We've been taking cautious approach to exiting lockdown- Next stage is 17th may- Further easements- Pubs, restaurants- Hope to return to life as normal by June- Made very good progress on vaccinere FURTHER UPDATES ON GREEN LIST:- A very cautious start- Only 12 countries- Will review it every 3 weeks- Other countries will be added as times goes on- We judge 3 weeks is the right interval- People need to be able to plan their travel- Evidence of virus prevalence doesn't change that quicklyre HOW THEY CHOOSE COUNTRIES:- They look at prevalence of virus in population- Risk of a new strain- Ability of countries to identify new strains- That is a challenge in some countries- We need them to be able to ID new strains- A range of factors...