Humza Yousaf has said the Scottish Government will “in essence replicate” UK legislation banning XL bully dogs without a licence.

It comes after his Government faced calls to bring Scotland in line with restrictions on the breed south of the border.

The Scottish Government has accepted there has been an influx of XL bullies to Scotland since the UK Government banned the breeding, selling or abandonment of the dogs in England on December 31.

Additional measures will make it a criminal offence to own an XL bully without a certificate in England and Wales from February 1.

When the issue was raised at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Mr Yousaf said the measures in England are not an outright ban on XL bullies as owners can still keep them under certain criteria.

He said: “What has become clear, I’m afraid in the last few weeks, is we have seen a flow of XL bully dogs coming to Scotland, a number of people coming to Scotland to bring XL bully dogs here to the country.

“As such, we will give further details to members of the Scottish Parliament through a parliamentary statement if the parliamentary bureau agrees next week.

“We will, in essence, replicate the legislation that is in England and Wales here in Scotland because ultimately, although we do have a very good system of dog control notice schemes, and we do take the approach indeed not to breed, we have to respond to the situation as it currently stands and therefore we will do what we need to do to ensure public safety.”

Earlier this week, Scottish community safety minister Siobhian Brown told MSPs the matter was being reviewed “urgently” and said it would be “preferable” if people did not purchase XL bullies.

However the Scottish Conservatives said she should not “dither and delay” on the issue.

Speaking to journalists after FMQs, Mr Yousaf said the UK Government’s measures are “not a ban” and were announced without consultation with the Scottish Government.

He stressed the importance of carrying out such consultations, saying: “The consultation has taken place in relation to the engagement that Siobhian Brown has had with key stakeholders

“We can’t ignore the fact that over the last few weeks we have seen evidence of that flow of XL bully dogs (to Scotland).

“We’ll therefore look to replicate some of those safeguards.”

A spokesman for the First Minister later told journalists the Government did not have numbers of dogs being brought to Scotland from England, suggesting that the decision was impacted by newspaper reports of people transporting the animals north of the border.

The spokesman said the Government had “listened to a wide variety of sources” before making its decision, with a statement from community safety minister Siobhian Brown expected in Holyrood next week.

Asked if the Scottish Government has any issue with the XL bully breed, he added: “Our issue is with large numbers of dogs coming across the border to get away from a ban.”