Farriers (Registration) Bill

Lord Addington Excerpts

2nd reading (Hansard): House of Lords
Thursday 6th April 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Addington (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Earl for bringing the Bill forward. I am afraid I must take a bit of the responsibility for it being in front of noble Lords in the first place. A while ago, one of the elected farriers on the existing board came to me and said that there were problems. I will not go into details because I do not think it would add anything to the process, but my advice was, “Go and talk to your MP”. He and the other elected farriers on the board—then there were four, as there will be now, but slightly different criteria were used from those in the Bill—went and spoke to their MPs. After a great deal of churn, we have ended up with a new Bill, and I must thank Byron Davies for getting it through the House of Commons. When we initially spoke about this I did not think that would happen, so congratulations to all those involved in piloting the Bill through.

The problems were basically explained to me as being cultural—there had been a breakdown. The solutions that the elected farriers wanted were not exactly those in the Bill, but I appreciate that this is better. Even they would say that half a loaf is a hell of a lot better than no bread, so I hope we get the Bill through. As the noble Earl has pointed out, this will probably be the last opportunity to do so.

I have a few questions for the Minister, and indeed the noble Earl if he cares to chip in. Could we get a working definition in the Bill of what a working farrier actually is? Some of the problems stemmed from the fact that it was felt that some of the committees did not understand the realities of being a farrier—that is, a person who travels around the country, usually in a small vehicle, having to deal with half a tonne of horseflesh that may not be that co-operative. Indeed, it has been said that farriers usually have a girlfriend or boyfriend who is a nurse because frequently that is how they meet. It is a hard, dirty, physical job, and having people who understand that would help. I make it at least five farriers on the council specified in the Bill. If the noble Earl or the Minister could give a definition of what exactly the word means, that would help.

The process of appointing the chair has changed, and a description of how that has changed would help to clarify what has gone on here. The noble Earl has remarked on the capacity to change this much more easily, if something goes wrong, as we are using statutory instruments. I think that would be a last resort, as he has said, but it would mean that things could actually be changed that much more quickly in future.

If we get these clarifications in place, we should do everything we can to ensure that the Bill gets through because it will make the situation better. With that, I wish the Bill godspeed, and hope that we do not actually have to take up too much time getting it through.