The dog warden service could be strengthened and restrictions reintroduced on some breeds, the Minister of Home Affairs has said.

Walter Roban has received a report from the Canine Advisory Committee, led by government senator Lindsay Simmons, and is considering its recommendations.

The committee, announced this year, was formed in response to increased canine-related incidents, especially those involving pitbulls. It was tasked with drawing up recommendations on legislative amendments.

“Not only will their recommendations be taken and put into a form that I believe can be helpful, we will come up with some other strong recommendations as well that we intend to put in place to bring a lot more sustained action around the issue of dogs,” Mr Roban said.

“We understand this is a serious problem and I’ve experienced it in my own district. We are reviewing those recommendations, which I have just received, so that we can come up with a clear plan of action.

“I’m looking forward to having a report before the end of summer, when I can reveal recommendations to the public.”

Pressed on what those recommendations could be and asked whether they could include changes to the law, Mr Roban, said: “Yes, I can give some window on that.

“There could be some reinstituting of some restrictions, but I won’t get into the detail.”

He added: “There’s going to be a refinement, perhaps bringing in some specific types of restrictions that we believe will be helpful.”

On whether that was to do with specific breeds, Mr Roban added: “Possibly. Yes.”

The minister said he was also looking at providing additional support for the dog wardens “who are under extreme amount of work pressure right now”.

“I’m looking at the possibility of having some reserve wardens, or assistant wardens, who could give support like the reserve police and who would be qualified to go out there and do some of the work.

“We’re also looking to embrace technology to have a much more extensive monitoring system of dogs overall as well.”

Recently the British Government posted, and then withdrew, a warning about stray dogs in Bermuda.

Mr Roban said: “We don't have a stray dog problem from that standpoint. There are some other Overseas Territories that do, but Bermuda is not one of them. We don't have packs of dogs wandering the streets.

“We have incidences where dogs get released or break out and then they run around and unfortunately do some very terrible things, which should not be happening.

“But we don’t have packs of dogs running around the island aimlessly. That, as you know, was an error released by the UK Government.”

Figures released at the start of this year showed that from 2017 to July 2022, 384 dog-related complaints were lodged involving chasing or threatening behaviour, or biting or injury to a person or an animal.

Of those, 218 were recorded against pitbull breeds, which accounted for 24 of the incidents in 2017, 14 in 2018, 45 in 2019, 38 in 2020, 51 in 2021, and 46 in the first seven months of 2022.

The Royal Gazette has reported on a series of incidents involving dog attacks recently, including a visitor who was attacked by a loose pitbull while he was walking near Southlands in Warwick with his wife in May.

A father also told the Gazette how two stray pitbulls attacked and killed his family dog in front of his two young children.

Last year, the Gazette reported that changes to dog laws had been signalled after a surge in attacks on the island.

At the time, Mr Roban said that a shake-up was needed after a spate of incidents involving dangerous dogs.

The Dogs Act 2008, which opponents said was rushed through Parliament without proper consideration, is being looked at in the wake of what Mr Roban called an increasing trend of out-of-control dogs.

• The interview with Walter Roban was conducted on July 8