Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of the report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare, The Urgent Need for an Effective, Enforceable and Enforced Equine Identification System, published in February 2014; and if she will bring forward proposals for such a system to be in place before the end of the current Parliament.

Defra accepts that the current EU system for equine identification does not work well and has pushed for a strengthened regime which is fit for purpose throughout Europe. Defra is now working with the other Governments of the United Kingdom, enforcement authorities and the equine sector to implement a new EU regulation which will help to ensure the regime operates effectively and efficiently in the future.