Police spending on kennels and veterinary bills in England and Wales has more than tripled since the XL bully ban came into force, with some forces recording an almost 500% spending increase since the new law was enacted in 2024.

Data from 22 police forces obtained via freedom of information requests showed police spending had soared from an average of £137,400 per force in 2022-23 to £423,136 in 2024-25.

West Mercia police reported the biggest increase, with annual costs rising from £92,383 in 2022-23 to £715,349 in 2025-26, a 674% increase.

John Campion, the Conservative police and crime commissioner for the area, said: “Policing is already stretched, and rising costs and growing demand are pushing resources to the limit. The added burden, created by the government and public, of paying for kennelling illegal dogs places even more pressure on already tight budgets.

“Kennelling is essential for public safety, but without proper government support these costs risk impacting frontline services.”

Other forces including Lancashire, Cumbria, Devon and Cornwall, Norfolk and Sussex all recorded a spending increase of more than 300% between 2022-23 and 2024-25.

Patrick O’Hara, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) tactical lead on dangerous dogs, said he had “not known this type of demand in my 26 years’ service”.

“Our kennelling needs have gone up by about one-third since the ban came into force and the demand isn’t slowing down so we’re having to really concentrate on threat, harm and risk,” he told the BBC. “In the short term I think we will continue to see dog attacks as these dogs start to come of age and reach maturity. So I think it’s going to probably get worse before it gets better.”

Experts said court delays were increasing the duration and cost of kennelling of seized dogs, and they suggested cases involving XL bullies should be accelerated so as not to prolong unnecessary kennelling.

“It does seem like the dogs being kennelled are the dogs which are more dangerous, but it is obviously the case that they’re stuck in kennels and we don’t want that from a dog welfare perspective, and it’s also something that’s sad from an owner perspective,” said Benedict Treloar, co-founder of the Campaign for Evidence-Based Regulation of Dangerous Dogs (CEBRDD).

“I think that’s one area where it’s most clear there’s a problem that needs to be solved.”

Dr Samantha Gaines, head of companion animals science and policy at the RSPCA, said the increase in dog seizures by police and local authorities had driven up the price of kennelling and euthanasia, and reduced capacity.

“There’s been a huge surge in spend to try and enforce this legislation and our concern is that the money has been spent basically rounding up dogs which look like XL bullies instead of actually going out and tackling those dogs whose behaviour genuinely is causing risk to public safety,” she said.

The RSPCA, which did not support the XL bully ban, wants to see compulsory recording of dog bite incidents to help understand the scale of the problem and its causes, with a greater focus on education and prevention, rather than seizing animals.

There is a continuing debate about whether the ban has worked as intended, with a lack of data meaning it is difficult to track the precise impact on dog attacks and bites.

There were 31,920 recorded dog attacks on people in England and Wales in 2024, a 2% increase on 2023, when the ban was introduced. The data for 2025 has yet to be released.

There were three media-reported deaths involving XL bullies in 2025, down from six the previous year.

There have been two reported deaths from a dog attacks in 2026. A child was killed in Redcar on Thursday, and a 19-year-old, Jamie-Lea Biscoe, died after a dog attack at a house in Essex on Friday – police have yet to confirm the breed of dog in either case.

Exact statistics on dog attack deaths can be significantly delayed as death data in the UK is based on the date on which deaths are recorded, not the date they occur, and all dangerous dogs deaths in the UK are subject to an inquest, and potentially criminal prosecution, which holds up reporting.

CEBRDD argue that Google Trends data showing a substantial reduction in searches for the bully XL proves there is less interest in buying the breed, and the number of XL bullies will eventually decrease over time.

“We still have 40,000-50,000 bully XLs within the population so we would expect there to be some ongoing attacks from them,” said Treloar. “But by preventing further sale of those dogs and preventing them from becoming a greater part of the dog population, we aimed to hold deaths flat and then hoped they would come down over time.

“We believe the ban has already limited the most severe attacks, although we can’t say this for certain.”